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diff --git a/15117.txt b/15117.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b44780c --- /dev/null +++ b/15117.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10589 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea and Shore, by Mrs. Catharine A. Warfield + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Sea and Shore + A Sequel to "Miriam's Memoirs" + +Author: Mrs. Catharine A. Warfield + +Release Date: February 21, 2005 [EBook #15117] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA AND SHORE *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Josephine +Paolucci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: There are two Chapter VI's in this book. +I have moved footnotes to the end of each chapter.] + + + + +SEA AND SHORE. + +A + +SEQUEL TO "MIRIAM'S MEMOIRS." + +BY MRS. CATHARINE A. WARFIELD. + +AUTHOR OF + +"THE HOUSEHOLD OF BOUVERIE," "MONFORT HALL," "MIRIAM'S HOUSE" "HESTER +HOWARD'S TEMPTATION," "A DOUBLE WEDDING; OR, HOW SHE WAS WON," ETC. + + "_No fears hath she! Her giant form + Majestically calm would go + O'er wrathful surge, through blackening storm, + 'Mid he deep darkness, white as snow! + So stately her bearing, so proud her array, + The main she will traverse forever and aye! + Many ports shall exult in the gleam of her mast-- + Hush! hush! Thou vain dreamer, this hour is her last!_" + +PHILADELPHIA: +T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS; +306 CHESTNUT STREET. + + +1876 + + +MRS. C.A. WARFIELD'S NEW WORKS. + +Each Book is in One Volume, Morocco Cloth, price $1.75. + +_SEA AND SHORE_. + +_MIRIAM'S MEMOIRS_. + +_MONFORT HALL_. + +_THE HOUSEHOLD OF BOUVERIE_. + +_A DOUBLE WEDDING; or, How She Was Won_. + +_HESTER HOWARD'S TEMPTATION_. + + +_From Gail Hamilton, author of "Gala Days" etc._ + +"'The Household of Bouverie' is one of those books that pluck out all +your teeth, and then dare you to bite them. Your interest is awakened at +once in the first chapter, and you are whirled through in a +lightning-express train that leaves you no opportunity to look at the +little details of wood, and lawn, and river. You notice two or three +little peculiarities of style--one or two 'bits' of painting--and then +you pull on your seven-leagued boots and away you go." + +_From George Ripley's Review of "The Household of Bouverie" in Harper's +Magazine_. + +"'The Household of Bouverie,' by Mrs. Warfield, is a wonderful book. I +have read it twice--the second time more carefully than the first--and I +use the term 'wonderful,' because it best expresses the feeling +uppermost in my mind, both while reading and thinking it over. As a +piece of imaginative writing, I have seen nothing to equal it since the +days of Edgar A. Poe, and I doubt whether he could have sustained +himself and the readers through a book half the size of the 'Household +of Bouverie.' I have literally hurried through it by my intense +sympathy, my devouring curiosity--It was more than interest. I read +everywhere--between the courses of the hotel-table, on the boat, in the +cars--until I had swallowed the last line. This is no common occurrence +with a veteran romance reader like myself." + +Above Books are for sale by all Booksellers at $1.75 each, or $10.50 for +a complete set of the six volumes, or copies of either one or more of +the above Books, or a complete set of the six volumes, will be sent at +once, to any one, to any place, post-paid, or free of freight, on +remitting their price in a letter to the publishers, + +T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, +306 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA. + + + + + "No fears hath she! Her giant form + Majestically calm would go + O'er wrathful surge, through blackening storm, + 'Mid the deep darkness, white as snow! + So stately her bearing, so proud her array, + The main she will traverse forever and aye! + Many ports shall exult in the gleam of her mast-- + Hush! hush! thou vain dreamer, this hour is her last!" + + WILSON, "_Isle of Palms_." + + * * * * * + + "Then hold her + Strictly confined in sombre banishment, + And Doubt not but she will ere long, full gladly, + Her freedom purchase at the price you name." + + * * * * * + + "No, subtle snake! + It is the baseness of thy selfish mind, + Full of all guile, and cunning, and deceit, + That severs us so far, and shall do _ever_." + + * * * * * + + "Despair shall give me strength--where is the door? + Mine eyes are dark! I cannot find it now. + O God! protect me in this awful pass!" + + JOANNA BAILLIE, _Tragedy of "Orra_." + + + + +SEA AND SHORE. + +BY MRS. C.A. WARFIELD. + +AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSEHOLD OF BOUVERIE." + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +It was a calm and hazy morning of Southern summer that on which I turned +my face seaward from the "keep" of Beauseincourt, never, I knew, to see +its time-stained walls again, save through the mirage of memory. There +is an awe almost as solemn to me in a consciousness like this as that +which attends the death-bed parting, and my straining eye takes in its +last look of a familiar scene as it might do the ever-to-be-averted face +of friendship. + +The refrain of Poe's even then celebrated poem was ringing through my +brain on that sultry August day, I remember, like a tolling bell, as I +looked my last on the gloomy abode of the La Vignes; but I only said +aloud, in answer to the sympathizing glances of one who sat before +me--the gentle and quiet Marion--who had suddenly determined to +accompany me to Savannah, nerved with unwonted impulse: + +"Madame de Stael was right when she said that 'nevermore' was the +saddest and most expressive word in the English tongue" (so harsh to her +ears, usually). "I think she called it the sweetest, too, in sound; but +to me it is simply the most sorrowful, a knell of doom, and it fills my +soul to-day to overflowing, for 'never, never more' shall I look on +Beauseincourt!" + +"You cannot tell, Miss Harz, what _time_ may do; you may still return to +visit us in our retirement, you and Captain Wentworth," urged Marion, +gently, leaning forward, as she spoke, to take my hand in hers. + +"'Time the tomb-builder'" fell from my lips ere they were aware. "That +is a grand thought--one that I saw lately in a Western poem, the +New-Year's address of a young editor of Kentucky called Prentice. Is it +not splendid, Marion?" + +"Very awful, rather," she responded, with a faint shudder. "Time the +'comforter,' let us say, instead, Miss Miriam--Time the +'veil-spreader.'" + +"Why, Marion, you are quite poetic to-day, quite Greek! That is a sweet +and tender saying of yours, and I shall garner it. I stand reproved, my +child. All honor to Time, the _merciful_, whether he builds palaces or +tombs! but none the less do I reverence my young poet for that +stupendous utterance of his soul. I shall watch the flight of that +eaglet of the West with interest from this hour! May he aspire!" + +"Not if he is a Jackson Democrat?" broke in the usually gentle Alice +Durand, fired with a ready defiance of all heterodox policy, common, if +not peculiar, to that region. + +"Oh, but he is not; he is a good Whig instead--a Clay man, as we call +such." + +"Not a Calhoun man, though, I suppose, so I would not give a snap of my +fingers for him or his poetry! It is very natural, for you, Miss Harz," +in a somewhat deprecating tone, "to praise your partisans. I would not +have you neutral if I could, it is so contemptible." + +A little of the good doctor's spirit there, under all that exterior of +meekness and modesty, I saw at a glance, and liked her none the less for +it, if truth were told. And now we were nearing the gate, with its +gray-stone pillars, on one of which, that from which the marble ball had +rolled, to hide in the grass beneath, perchance, until the end of all, I +had seen the joyous figure of Walter La Vigne so lightly poised on the +occasion of my last exodus from Beauseincourt. A moment's pause, and the +difficult, disused bolts that had once exasperated the patience of +Colonel La Vigne were drawn asunder, and the clanking gates clashed +behind us as we emerged from the shadowed domain into the glare and dust +of the high-road. + +Here Major Favraud, accompanied by Duganne, awaited us, seated in state +in his lofty, stylish swung gig (with his tiny tiger behind), drawn +tandem-wise by his high-stepping and peerless blooded bays, Castor and +Pollux. Brothers, like the twins of Leda, they had been bred in the +blue-grass region of Kentucky and the vicinity of Ashland, and were +worthy of their ancient pedigree, their perfect training and classic +names, the last bestowed when he first became their owner, by Major +Favraud, who, with a touch of the whip or a turn of the hand, controlled +them to subjection, fiery coursers although they were! + +Dr. Durand, too, with his spacious and flame-lined gig, accompanied by +his son, a lad of sixteen, awaited our arrival, and served to swell the +cavalcade that wound slowly down the dusty road, with its sandy surface +and red-clay substratum. A few young gentlemen on horseback completed +our _cortege_. + +Major Favraud sat holding his ribbons gracefully in one gauntleted +hand, while he uncovered his head with the other, bowing suavely in his +knightly fashion, as he said: + +"Come drive with me, Miss Harz, for a while, and let the young folks +take it together." + +"Oh, no, Major Favraud; you must excuse me, indeed! I feel a little +languid this morning, and I should be poor company. Besides, I cannot +surrender my position as one of the young folks yet." + +"Nay, I have something to say to you--something very earnest. You shall +be at no trouble to entertain me; but you must not refuse a poor, sad +fellow a word of counsel and cheer. I shall think hard of you if you +decline to let me drive you a little way. Besides, the freshness of the +morning is all lost on you there. Now, set Marion a good example, and +she will, in turn, enliven me later." + +So adjured, I consented to drive to the Fifteen-mile House with Major +Favraud, and Duganne glided into the coach in my stead, to take my place +and play _vis-a-vis_ to Sylphy, who, as usual, was selected as +traveling-companion on this occasion, "to take kear of de young ladies." + +"I am so glad I have you all to myself once more, Miss Harz! I feel now +that we are fast friends again. And I wanted to tell you, while I could +speak of her, how much my poor wife liked you. (The time will come when +I must not, _dare_ not, you know.) But for circumstances, she would have +urged you to become our guest, or even in-dweller; but you know how it +all was! I need not feign any longer, nor apologize either." + +"It must have been that she saw how lovely and _spirituelle_ I found +_her_," I said, "and could not bear to be outdone in consideration, nor +to owe a debt of social gratitude. She knew so little of me. But these +affinities are electric sometimes, I must believe." + +"Yes, there is more of that sort of thing on earth, perhaps, 'than is +dreamed of in our philosophy'--antagonism and attraction are always +going on among us unconsciously." + +"I am inclined to believe so from my own experience," I replied, +vaguely, thinking, Heaven knows, of any thing at the moment rather than +of him who sat beside me. + +"Your mind is on Wentworth, I perceive," he said, softly; after a short +pause, "now give up your dream for a little while and listen to this +sober reality--sober to-day, at least," he added, with a light laugh. +"By-the-way, talking of magnetism, do you know, Miss Harz, I think you +are the most universally magnetic woman I ever saw? All the men fall in +love with you, and the women don't hate you for it, either." + +"How perfectly the last assertion disproves the first!" I replied; "but +I retract, I will not, even for the sake of a syllogism, abuse my own +sex; women are never envious except when men make them so, by casting +down among them the golden apple of admiration." + +"I know one man, at least, who never foments discord in this way! +Wentworth, from the beginning, had eyes and ears for no one but +yourself, yet I never dreamed the drama would be enacted so speedily; I +own I was as much in the dark as anybody." + +I could not reply to this _badinage_, as in happier moments I might have +done, but said, digressively: + +"By-the-by, while I think of it, I must put down on my tablet the order +of Mr. Vernon. He wants 'Longfellow's Poems,' if for sale in Savannah. +He has been permeating his brain with the 'Psalms of Life,' that have +come out singly in the _Knickerbocker Magazine_, until he craves every +thing that pure and noble mind has thrown forth in the shape of a song." + +And I scribbled in my memorandum-book, for a moment, while Major Favraud +mused. + +"Longfellow!" he said, at last, "Phoebus, what a name!" adding +affectedly, "yet it seems to me, on reflection, I _have_ heard it +before. He is a Yankee, of course! Now, do you earnestly believe a +native of New England, by descent a legitimate witch-burner, you know, +_can_ be any thing better than a poll-parrot in the poetical line?" + +"Have we not proof to the contrary, Major Favraud?" + +"What proof? Metre and rhyme, I grant you--long and short--but show me +the afflatus! They make verse with a penknife, like their wooden +nutmegs. They are perfect Chinese for ingenuity and imitation, and the +resemblance to the real Simon-pure is very perfect--externally. But when +it comes to grating the nut for negus, we miss the aroma!" + +"Do you pretend that Bryant is not a poet in the grain, and that the +wondrous boy, Willis, was not also 'to the manner born?' Read +'Thanatopsis,' or are you acquainted with it already? I hardly think you +can be. Read those scriptural poems." + +"A very smooth school-exercise the first, no more. There is not a +heart-beat in the whole grind. As to Willie--he failed egregiously, when +he attempted to 'gild refined gold and paint the lily,' as he did in his +so-called 'Sacred Poems.' He can spin a yarn pretty well, and coin a new +word for a make-shift, amusingly, but save me from the foil-glitter of +his poetry."[1] + +"This is surprising! You upset all precedent. I really wish you had not +said these things. I now begin to see the truth of what my copy-book +told me long ago, that 'evil association corrupts good manners,' or I +will vary it and substitute 'opinions.' I must eschew your society, in a +literary way, I must indeed, Major Favraud." + +"Now comes along this strolling Longfellow minstrel," he continued, +ignoring or not hearing my remark, "with _his_ dreary hurdy-gurdy to cap +the climax. Heavens! what a nasal twang the whole thing has to me. Not +an original or cheerful note! 'Old Hundred' is joyful in comparison!" + +"You shall not say that," I interrupted; "you shall not dare to say that +in my presence. It is sheer slander, that you have caught up from some +malignant British review, and, like all other serpents, you are venomous +in proportion to your blindness! I am vexed with you, that you will not +see with the clear, discerning eyes God gave you originally." + +"But I do see with them, and very discerningly, notwithstanding your +comparison. Now there is that 'Skeleton in Armor,' his last effusion, I +believe, that you are all making such a work over--fine-sounding thing +enough, I grant you, ingenious rhyme, and all that. But I know where the +framework came from! Old Drayton furnished that in his 'Battle of +Agincourt.'" Then in a clear, sonorous voice, he gave some specimens of +each, so as to point the resemblance, real or imaginary. + +"You are content with mere externs in finding your similitudes, Major +Favraud! In power of thought, beauty of expression, what comparison is +there? Drayton's verse is poor and vapid, even mean, beside +Longfellow's." + +"I grant you that. I have never for one moment disputed the ability of +those Yankees. Their manufacturing talents are above all praise, but +when it comes to the 'God-fire,' as an old German teacher of mine used +to say, our simple Southern poets leave them all behind--'Beat them all +hollow,' would be their own expression. You gee, Miss Harz, that +Cavalier blood of ours, that inspired the old English bards, _will_ +tell, in spite of circumstances." + +"But genius is of no rank--no blood--no clime! What court poet of his +day, Major Favraud, compared with Robert Burns for feeling, fire, and +pathos? Who ever sung such siren strains as Moore, a simple Irishman of +low degree? No Cavalier blood there, I fancy! What power, what beauty in +the poems of Walter Scott! Byron was a poet in spite of his condition, +not because of it. Hear Barry Cornwall--how he stirs the blood I What +trumpet like to Campbell I What mortal voice like to Shelley's? the +hybrid angel! What full orchestra surpassed Coleridge for harmony and +brilliancy of effect? Who paints panoramas like Southey? Who charms like +Wordsworth? Yet these were men of medium condition, all--I hate the +conceits of Cowley, Waller, Sir John Suckling, Carew, and the like. All +of your Cavalier type, I believe, a set of hollow pretenders mostly." + +"All this is overwhelming, I grant," bowing deferentially. "But I return +to my first idea, that Puritan blood was not exactly fit to engender +genius; and that in the rich, careless Southern nature there lurks a +vein of undeveloped song that shall yet exonerate America from the +charge of poverty of genius, brought by the haughty Briton! Yes, we will +sing yet a mightier strain than has ever been poured since the time of +Shakespeare! and in that good time coming weave a grander heroic poem +than any since the days of Homer! Then men's souls shall have been +tried in the furnace of affliction, and Greek meets not Greek, but +Yankee. For we Southerners only bide our time!" + +And he cut his spirited lead-horse, until it leaped forward suddenly, as +though to vent his excitement, and, setting his email white teeth +sternly, with an eye like a burning coal, looked forward into space, his +whole face contracting. + +"The Southern lyre has been but lightly swept so far, Miss Harz," he +continued, a moment later, "and only by the fingers of love; we need +Bellona to give tone to our orchestra." + +I could not forbear reciting somewhat derisively the old couplet-- + + "'Sound the trumpet, teat the drum, + Tremble France, we come, we come!' + +"Is that the style Major Favraud?" I asked. "I remember the time when I +thought these two lines the most soul-stirring in the language--they +seem very bombastic now, in my maturity." + +He smiled, and said: "The time is not come for our war-poem, and, as for +love, let me give you one strain of Pinckney's to begin with;" and, +without waiting for permission, he recited the beautiful "Pledge," with +which all readers are now familiar, little known then, however, beyond +the limits of the South, and entirely new to me, beginning with-- + + "I fill this cup to one made up + Of loveliness alone, + A woman of her gentle sex + The seeming paragon"-- + +continuing to the end with eloquence and spirit. + +"Now, that is poetry, Miss Harz! the real afflatus is there; the bead on +the wine; the dew on the rose; the bloom on the grape! Nothing wanting +that constitutes the indefinable divine thing called genius! You +understand my idea, of course; explanations are superfluous." + +I assented mutely, scarce knowing why I did so. + +"Now, hear another." And the woods rang with his clear, sonorous accents +as he declaimed, a little too scanningly, perhaps--too much like an +enthusiastic boy: + + "Love lurks upon my lady's lip, + His bow is figured there; + Within her eyes his arrows sleep; + His fetters are--her hair!" + +"I call that nothing but a bundle of conceits, Major Favraud, mostly of +the days of Charles II., of Rochester himself--" interrupting him as I +in turn was interrupted. + +"But hear further," and he proceeded to the end of that marvelous +ebullition of foam and fervor, such as celebrated the birth of Aphrodite +herself perchance in the old Greek time; and which, despite my perverse +intentions, stirred me as if I had quaffed a draught of pink champagne. +Is it not, indeed, all _couleur de rose_? Hear this bit of melody, my +reader, sitting in supreme judgment, and perhaps contempt, on your +throne apart: + + "'Upon her cheek the crimson ray + By changes comes and goes, + As rosy-hued Aurora's play + Along the polar snows; + Gay as the insect-bird that sips + From scented flowers the dew-- + Pure as the snowy swan that dips + Its wings in waters blue; + Sweet thoughts are mirrored on her face, + Like clouds on the calm sea, + And every motion is a grace, + Each word a melody!'" + +"Yes, that is true poetry, I acknowledge, Major Favraud," I exclaimed, +not at all humbled by conviction, though a little annoyed at the pointed +manner in which he gave (looking in my face as he did so) these +concluding lines: + + "Say from what fair and sunny shore, + Fair wanderer, dost thou rove, + Lest what I only should adore + I heedless think to love?" + +"The character of Pinckney's genius," I rejoined, "is, I think, +essentially like that of Praed, the last literary phase with me--for I +am geological in my poetry, and take it in strata. But I am more +generous to your Southern bard than you are to our glorious Longfellow! +I don't call that imitation, but coincidence, the oneness of genius! I +do not even insinuate plagiarism." My manner, cool and careless, +steadied his own. + +"You are right: our 'Shortfellow' _was_ incapable of any thing of the +sort. Peace be to his ashes! With all his nerve and _vim_, he died of +melancholy, I believe. As good an end as any, however, and certainly +highly respectable. But you know what Wordsworth says in his +'School-master'-- + + "'If there is one that may bemoan + His kindred laid in earth, + The household hearts that were his own, + It is the man of mirth.'" + +He sighed as he concluded his quotation--sighed, and slackened the pace +of his flying steeds. "But give me something of Praed's in return," he +said, rallying suddenly; "is there not a pretty little thing called 'How +shall I woo her?'" glancing archly and somewhat impertinently at me, I +thought--or, perhaps, what would simply have amused me in another man +and mood shocked me in him, the recent widower--widowed, too, under such +peculiar and awful circumstances! I did not reflect sufficiently +perhaps, on his ignorance of many of these last. + +How I deplored his levity, which nothing could overcome or restrain; and +yet beneath which I even then believed lay depths of anguish! How I +wished that influence of mine could prevail to induce him to divide his +dual nature, "To throw away the worser part of it, and live the purer +with the better half!" But I could only show disapprobation by the +gravity of my silence. + +"So you will not give me 'How shall I woo her?' Miss Harz?" a little +embarrassed, I perceived, by my manner. "I have a fancy for the title, +nevertheless, not having heard any more, and should be glad to hear the +whole poem. But you are prudish to-day, I fancy." + +"No, there is nothing in that poem, certainly, that angels might not +hear approvingly; but it would sadden you, Major Favraud." + +"I will take the chance of that," laughing. "Come, the poem, if you care +to please your driver, and reward his care. See how skillfully I avoided +that fallen branch--suppose I were to be spiteful, and upset you against +this stump?" + +Any thing was preferable to his levity; and, as I had warned him of the +possible effect of the poem he solicited, I could not be accused of want +of consideration in reciting it. Besides, he deserved the lesson, the +stern lesson that it taught. + +As this could in no way be understood by such of my readers as are +unacquainted with this little gem, I venture to give it here--exquisite, +passionate utterance that it is, though little known to fame, at least +at this writing: + + "'How shall I woo her? I will stand + Beside her when she sings, + And watch her fine and fairy hand + Flit o'er the quivering strings! + But shall I tell her I have heard, + Though sweet her song may be, + A voice where every whispered word + _Was more than song to me_? + + "'How shall I woo her? I will gaze, + In sad and silent trance, + On those blue eyes whose liquid rays + Look love in every glance. + But shall I tell her eyes more bright, + Though bright her own may beam, + Will fling a deeper spell to-night + _Upon me in my dream_?'" + +I hesitated. "Let me stop here, Major Favraud, I counsel you," I +interpolated, earnestly; but he only rejoined: + +"No, no! proceed, I entreat you! it is very beautiful--very touching, +too!" Speaking calmly, and slacking rein, so that the grating of the +wheels among the stems of the scarlet _lychnis_, that grew in immense +patches on our road, might not disturb his sense of hearing, which, +by-the-way, was exquisitely nice and fastidious. + +"As you please, then;" and I continued the recitation. + + "'How shall I woo her? I will try + The charms of olden time, + And swear by earth, and sea, and sky, + And rave in prose and rhyme-- + And I will tell her, when I bent + My knee in other years, + I was not half so _eloquent_; + I could not speak--_for tears_!'" + +I watched him narrowly; the spell was working now; the poet's hand was +sweeping, with a gust of power, that harp of a thousand strings, the +wondrous human heart! And I again pursued, in suppressed tones of +heart-felt emotion, the pathetic strain that he had evoked with an idea +of its frivolity alone: + + "'How shall I woo her? I will bow + Before the holy shrine, + And pray the prayer, and vow the vow, + And press her lips to mine-- + And I will tell her, when she starts + From passion's thrilling kiss, + That _memory_ to many hearts + Is dearer far than bliss!'" + +It was reserved for the concluding verse to unnerve him completely; a +verse which I rendered with all the pathos of which I was capable, with +a view to its final effect, I confess: + + "'Away! away! the chords are mute, + The bond is rent in twain; + You _cannot_ wake the silent lute, + Or clasp its links again. + Love's toil, I know, is little cost; + Love's perjury is light sin; + But souls that lose what I have lost, + What have they left to win?'" + +"What, indeed?" he exclaimed, impetuously--tears now streaming over his +olive cheeks. He flung the reins to me with a quick, convulsive motion, +and covered his face with his hands. Groans burst from his murmuring +lips, and the great deeps of sorrow gave up their secrets. I was sorry +to have so stirred him to the depths by any act or words of mine, and +yet I enjoyed the certainty of his anguish. + +I checked the horses beneath a magnolia-tree, and sat quietly waiting +for the flood of emotion to subside as for him to take the initiative. I +had no word to say, no consolation to offer. Nay, after consideration, +rather did I glory in his grief, which redeemed his nature in my +estimation, though grieved in turn to have afflicted him. For, in spite +of all his faults, and my earlier prejudices, I loved this impulsive +Southron man, as Scott has it, "right brotherly." + +At last, looking up grave, tearless, and pale, and resuming his reins +without apology for having surrendered them, he said, abruptly: + +"All is so vain! Such mockery now to me! She was the sole reality of +this universe to my heart! I grapple with shadows unceasingly. There is +not on the face of this globe a more desolate wretch. You understand +this! You feel for me, you do not deride me! You know how perfect, how +spiritual she was! You loved her well--I saw it in your eyes, your +manner--and for that, if nothing else, you have my heart-felt gratitude. +So few appreciated her unearthly purity. Yet, was it not strange she +should have loved a man so gross, so steeped in sensuous, thoughtless +enjoyment--so remote from God as I am--have ever been? But the song +speaks for me"--waving his gauntleted hand--"better than I can speak: + + "'Away! away! the chords are mute, + The bond is rent in twain.'" + +"I shall never marry again--never! Miss Miriam, I know now, and shall +know evermore, in all its fullness, and weariness, and bitterness, the +meaning of that terrible word--alone! Eternal solitude. The Robinson +Crusoe of society. A sort of social Daniel Boone. Thus you must ever +consider me. And yet, just think of it, Miss Harz!" + +"Oh, but you will not always feel so; there may come a time of +reaction." I hesitated. It was not my purpose to encourage change. + +"No, never! never!" he interrupted, passionately; "don't even suggest +it--don't! and check me sternly if ever I forget my grief again in +frivolity of any sort in your presence. You are a noble, sweet woman, +with breadth enough of character to make allowances for the shortcomings +of a poor, miserable man like me--trying to cheat himself back into +gayety and the interests of life. I have sisters, but they are not like +you. I wish to Heaven they were! There is not a woman in the world on +whom I have any claims--on whose shoulder I can lean my head and take a +hearty cry. And what are men at such a season? Mocking fiends, usually, +the best of them! I shall go abroad, Miss Harz. I am no anchorite. You +will hear of me as a gay man of the world, perhaps; but, as to being +happy, that can never be again! The bubble of life has burst, and my +existence falls flat to the earth. Victor Favraud, that airy nothing, is +scarcely a 'local habitation and a name' now!" + +"Let him make a name, then," I urged. "With military talents like yours, +Major Favraud, the road to distinction will soon be open to you. Our +approaching difficulties with France--" + +"Oh, that will all be patched up, or has been, by this time. Van Buren +is a crafty but peace-loving fox! Something of an epicurean, too, in his +high estate. What grim old Jackson left half healed, he will complete +the cure of. Ah, Miss Harz, I had hoped to flesh my sword in a nobler +cause!" + +I knew what he meant. That dream of nullification was still uppermost +in his soul--dispersed, as it was, in the eyes of all reasonable men. I +shook my head. "Thank God! all that is over," I said, gravely, +fervently; "and my prayer to Him is that he may vouchsafe to preserve us +for evermore an unbroken people!" + +"May He help Israel when the time comes," he murmured low, "for come it +will, Miss Harz, as surely as there is a sun in the heavens! 'and may I +be there to see!' as John Gilpin said, or some one of him--which was +it?" + +And, whipping up his lagging steeds as we gained the open road, we +emerged swiftly from the shadows of the forest--between nodding +cornfields, already helmed and plumed for the harvest, and plantations +green with thrifty cotton-plants, with their half-formed bolls, +promising such bounteous yield, and meadows covered with the tufted +Bermuda grass, with its golden-green verdure, we sped our way toward +Lenoir's Landing. + +This peninsula was formed by the junction of two rivers, between which +intervened a narrow point of land, with a background of steep hills, +covered with a growth of black-jack and yellow-pine to the summit. Here +was a ferry with its Charon-like boat, of the primitive sort--flat +barge, poled-over by negroes, and capable of containing at one time many +bales of cotton, a stagecoach or wagon with four horses, besides +passengers _ad libitum_. + +This ferry constituted the chief source of revenue of Madame Grambeau, +an old French lady, remarkable in many ways. She kept the stage-house +hard by, with its neat picketed inclosure, its overhanging live-oak +trees and small trim parterre, gay at this season with various annual +flowers, scarce worth the cultivation, one would think, in that land of +gorgeous perennial bloom. But Queen Margarets, ragged robins, variegated +balsams, and tawny marigolds, have their associations, doubtless, to +make them dear and valuable to the foreign heart, to which they seem +essential, wherever a plot of ground be in possession. + +Mignonette, I have observed, is a special passion with the French exile, +recalling, doubtless, the narrow boxes, fitted to the stone window-sill +of certain former lofty lodgings across the sea, perhaps, situated in +the heart of some great city, and overlooking roofs and court-yards--the +street being quite out of the question in such a view, distant, as it +seems, from them, as the sky itself, though in an opposite direction. + +I have used the word "exile" advisedly with regard to Madame Grambeau, +and not figuratively at all. She was, I had been told, a _bourgeoise_, +of good class, who had taken part in the early revolution, but who, when +the _canaille_ triumphed and drenched the land in blood, in the second +phase of that fearful outburst of volcanic feeling, had fled before the +whirlwind with her child and husband to embark for America. At the point +of embarcation--like Evangeline--the husband and wife had been separated +accidentally, and on her arrival in a strange land she found herself +alone and penniless with her son, scarce six years old. Her husband had +been carried to a Southern port, she learned by the merest chance, and, +disguising herself in man's attire, and leading her little son by the +hand, she set forth in quest of him, carrying with her a violin, which, +together with the clothes she wore, had been found in the trunk of +Monsieur Grambeau, brought on the vessel in which she came, but which +depository she had been obliged to abandon, when setting forth on her +pilgrimage. + +She was no unskillful performer on this instrument, and solely by such +aid she gained her food and lodging to the interior of Georgia. Reaching +her destination after a long and painful journey and delays of many +kinds, she found her husband living in a log-hut, on the border of +Talupa River, a hut which he had built himself, and earning his bread by +ferrying travellers across that stream. + +Yet here, with the characteristic contentment of her people under all +circumstances, she settled down quietly to aid him and make his home +happy; bore him many children (most of whom were dead at the time I saw +her, as those living were separated from her at that period), reared and +educated them herself, toiled for and with them, late and early, +strained every nerve in the arduous cause of duty, and found herself, in +extreme old age, widowed and alone, having amassed but little of the +world's lucre, yet cheerful and energetic even if dependent still on her +own exertions. + +All this and much more I had heard before I saw Madame Grambeau or her +abode--a picturesque affair in itself, however humble--consisting +originally of a log-house, to which more recently white frame wings had +been attached, projecting a few feet in front of the primitive building, +and connected thereto by a shed-roofed gallery, which embraced the whole +front of the log-cottage, along which ran puncheon steps the entire +length of the grand original tree-trunk, as of the porch itself. It was +a triumph of rural art. + +Over this portico, so low in front as barely to admit the passage of a +tall man beneath its eaves, without stooping, a wild multiflora rose, +then in full flower, was artistically trained so as to present a series +of arches to the eye as the wayfarer approached the dwelling; no +tapestry was ever half so lovely. + +The path which led from the little white gate, with its swinging chain +and ball, was covered with river-pebbles and shells, and bordered by +box, trimly clipped and kept low, and the two broad steps, that led to +the porch, bore evidence of recent scouring, though rough and unpainted. + +Framed in one of those pointed natural cathedral-windows of vivid green, +gemmed with red roses, of which the division-posts of the porch formed +the white outlines, stood the most remarkable-looking aged woman I have +ever seen. At a first glance, indeed, the question of sex would have +arisen, and been found difficult to decide. Her attire seemed that of a +friar, even to the small scalloped cape that scantily covered her +shoulders, and the coarse black serge, of which her strait gown was +composed, leaving exposed her neatly though coarsely clad feet, with +their snow-white home-knit stockings, and low-quartered, well-polished +calf-skin shoes, confined with steel buckles, and elevated on heels, +then worn by men alone. + +She wore a white habit shirt, the collar, bosom, and wristbands of which +were visible; but no cap covered her silver hair, which was cropped in +the neck, and divided at one side in true manly fashion. It was brushed +well back from her expansive, fair, and unwrinkled forehead, beneath +which large blue eyes looked out with that strange solemnity we see +alone in the orbs of young, thoughtful children, or the very old. + +Scott's description of the "Monk of Melrose Abbey" occurred to me, as I +gazed on this calm and striking figure! + + "And strangely on the knight looked he, + And his blue eyes gleamed wild and wide." + +She stood watching our approach, leaning with both hands on her ebony, +silver-headed cane, above which she stooped slightly, her aged and +somewhat severe, but serene face fully turned toward us, in the clear +light of morning, with a grave majesty of aspect. + +Above her head in its wicker cage swung the gray and crimson parrot, of +which Sylphy had spoken, and to which, it may be remembered, she had so +irreverently likened her master on one occasion; bursting forth, as it +saw us coming, into a shrill, stereotyped phrase of welcome--"_Bien +venu, compatriote_," that was irresistibly ludicrous and irrelevant. + +"Tremble, France! we come--we come," said Major Favraud; "there's your +quotation well applied this time, Miss Harz! It is impressive, after +all." + +"Hush! she will hear you," I remonstrated, quite awed in that still, +majestic presence, for now we stood before our aged hostess, who, with a +cold but stately politeness after Major Favraud's salutation and +introduction, waved us in and across her threshold. As for Major +Favraud, he had turned to leave us on the door-sill, to see to the +comfort and safety of his horses; not liking, perhaps, the appearance of +the superannuated ostler, who lounged near the stable of the inn, if +such might be called this rustic retreat without sign, lodging, or +bar-rooms. + +"Are we in the mansion of a decayed queen, or the log-hut of a wayside +innkeeper?" I questioned low of Marion. + +"Both in one, it seems to me," was the reply. "But Madame Grambeau is no +curiosity, no novelty to me, I have stopped here so frequently. I ought +to have told you, before we came, not to be surprised." + +Pausing at the door of a large, square room, from which voices +proceeded, she invited us with a singularly graceful though formal +courtesy to enter, smiling and pointing forward silently as she did so, +and then, like Major Favraud, she turned and abandoned us at the +door-sill, on which we stood riveted for a moment by the sound of a +vibrant and eager voice speaking some never-to-be-forgotten words. + +"For the slave is the coral-insect of the South," said the voice within; +"insignificant in himself, he rears a giant structure--which will yet +cause the wreck of the ship of state, should its keel grate too closely +on that adamantine wall. '_L'etat c'est moi_,' said Louis XIV., and that +'slavery is the South' is as true an utterance. Our staple--our +patriarchal institution--our prosperity--are one and indissoluble, and +the sooner the issue comes the better for the nation!" + +Standing with his hand on the back of a chair near the casement-window +of the large, low apartment, in close conversation with two other +gentlemen, was the speaker of these remarkable words, which embraced the +whole genius and policy of the South as it then existed, and which were +delivered in those clear and perfectly modulated tones that bespeak the +practised orator and the man of dominant energies. + +I felt instinctively that I stood in the presence of one of the anointed +princes of the earth--felt it, and was thrilled. + +"Do you know that gentleman, Marion?" I whispered, as we seated +ourselves on the old-fashioned settle, or rather sofa, in one corner of +the room, gazing admiringly, as I spoke, on the tall, slight figure, +with its air of power and poise, that stood at some distance, with +averted face. + +"No, I have no idea who it is, or who are his companions either," she +replied; "unless"--hesitating with scrutiny in her eyes-- + +"His companions, I do not care to question of them!--but that man +himself--the speaker--has a sovereign presence! Can it be possible--" + +The entrance of Major Favraud interrupted further conjecture, for at the +sound of those emphatic boots the stranger turned, and for one moment +the splendor of his large dark eyes, in their iron framing, met my own, +then passed recognizingly on to rest on the face of Major Favraud, and +advancing with extended hands, made more cordial by his voice and smile, +he greeted him familiarly as "Victor." + +Major Favraud stood for a moment spell-bound--then suddenly rushing +forward, flung his hat to the floor, caught the hand of the stranger +between his own and pressed it to his heart. (To his lips, I think, he +would fain have lifted it, falling on one knee, perchance, at the same +time in a knightly fashion of hero-worship that modern reticence +forbids.) But he contented himself with exclaiming: + +"Mr. Calhoun! best of friends, welcome back to Georgia!" And tears +started to his eyes and choked his utterance. Thus was my conjecture +confirmed. I never felt so thrilled, so elated, by any presence. + +There was a momentary pause after this fervent greeting, emotional on +one part only. + +"But why did you not meet me at Milledgeville?" asked Mr. Calhoun. "Most +of my friends in this vicinity sustained me there. I have been +discussing the great question[2] again, Favraud, and I should have been +glad of your countenance." + +"I have been detained at home of late by a cruel necessity," was the +faltering reply, "or I should never have played recreant to my old +master." + +"Good fortune spoiled me a fine lawyer in your case, Victor! But +introduce me to your wife. Remember, I have never had the pleasure of +meeting Madame Favraud," advancing, as he spoke, toward me, with his +hand on Major Favraud's shoulder (above whom he towered by a head), +courteously and impulsively. + +"Miss Harz, Miss La Vigne, Miss Durand--Mr. Calhoun," said Major +Favraud, pale as death now, and trembling as he spoke. "These ladies are +friends of mine--one, a distant relative"--he hesitated--"within the +last six weeks I have had the misfortune to lose my wife, Mr. Calhoun. +You understand matters better now." + +All conversation was cut short by this sudden announcement. Deeply +shocked, Mr. Calhoun led Major Favraud aside, with a brief apology to me +for his misapprehension, and they stood together, talking low, at the +extreme end of the apartment, affording me thus an admirable opportunity +for observing the _personnel_ of the great Southern leader, during the +brief space of time accorded by the change of stage-horses. For, with +his friends, he was then _en route_ for another appointment. He was +canvassing the State, with a view to a final rally of its resources, +preparatory to his last great effort--to scotch the serpent of the +North, which finally, however, wound its insidious folds around the +heart of brotherly affection, stifling it, as the snakes of fable were +sent to do the baby Hercules. + +No picture of Mr. Calhoun has ever done him justice,[3] although his +was a physiognomy that an artist could scarcely fail to make an extern +likeness of, from its remarkable characteristics. It was truly an +iron-bound face, condensed, powerful in every nerve, muscle, and +lineament, and fraught, beyond almost all others, with intellect and +resolution. But the glory and power of that glance and smile no painter +could convey--those attributes of man which more fully than aught else +betray the immortal soul! + +Just as I beheld him that day, bending above Major Favraud in his +tender, half-paternal dignity and solicitude combined, soothing and +condoling with him (I could not doubt, from the expression of his +speaking countenance), I see him still in mental vision; nor can I +wonder more at the depth and strength of enthusiasm he awakened in the +hearts of his friends. + +It belongs not to every great man to excite this devotion, yet, where it +blends with greatness, it is irresistible. Mohammed, Cyrus, Alexander, +Darius, Pericles, Napoleon, were thus magnetically gifted. I recall few +instances of others so distinguished in station who possessed this +power, which has its root, perhaps, after all, in the great +master-passion of mortality, the yearning for exalted sympathy, so +seldom accorded. + +This observation of mine was but a glimpse at best, for the winding of +the stage-horn was the signal for Mr. Calhoun's departure, and I never +saw him more. But that glimpse alone opened to my eyes a mighty volume! + +A few days before I should have rejected as wearisome the details to +which I listened with eagerness now, and which I even sought to elicit +as to Mr. Calhoun--his mode of life, his mountain-home, and his passion, +for those heights he inhabited, and which, no doubt, contributed to +train his character to energy and strengthen his _physique_ to endure +its brain-burden, I heard with pleasure the account of one who had +passed much of his youth beneath his roof, and who, however +enthusiastic, was, in the very framing of his nature, strictly truthful +with regard to the mutual devotion of the master and slaves, the +invariable courtesy and sweetness of his deportment to his own family, +his justice and regard for the feelings of his lowest dependant, his +simplicity, his cheerfulness. + +"A grave and even gloomy man in public life, he is all life and interest +in the social circle," said Major Favraud. "His range of thought is the +grandest and most unlimited, his powers of conversation are the rarest I +have ever met with. Yet he never refused, on any occasion, to answer +with minuteness the inquiries of the smallest child or most +insignificant dependant. 'Had he not been Alexander, he must have been +Parmenio.' Had fortune not struck out for him the path of a statesman, +he would have made the most impressive and perfect of teachers. As it +was, without the slightest approach to pedagogism, he involuntarily +instructed all who came near him, without effort or weariness on either +side." + +"Does he love music--poetry?" I asked. + +"Oh, yes; Scottish songs and classic verse, especially, are his +delights. He has no affectation. His tastes are all his own--his +opinions all genuine. He is, indeed, a man of very varied attainment, as +well as great grasp of intellect. Yet, as you see, he likes his +opposites sometimes, Miss Harz," and he laid his hand proudly on his +own manly breast. + +Talking thus in that large, low, scantily-furnished parlor, with its +split-bottomed chairs, in primitive frames (and in somewhat strange +contrast to its well-polished mahogany tables, dark with time, and walls +adorned with good engravings), with its floor freshly scoured and +sanded, while a simple deal stand in the centre bore a vase filled with +the rarest and most exquisite wild-flowers I had ever seen (from the +gorgeous amaryllis and hibiscus of these regions, down to wax-like +blossoms of fragile delicacy and beauty, whose very names I knew not), +and its many small diamond-paned casement-windows, all neatly curtained +with coarse white muslin bordered with blue, time passed unconsciously +until the noonday meal was announced. + +We followed the Mercury of the establishment, a grave-looking little +yellow boy, who seemed to have grown prematurely old, from his constant +companionship, probably, with his preceptor and mistress, into a long, +low apartment in the rear of the dwelling, where a table was spread for +our party, with a damask cloth and napkins, decorated china and +cut-glass, that proved Madame Grambeau's personal superintendence; and +which elicited from Major Favraud, as he entered, a long, low whistle of +approval and surprise, and the exclamation "Heh! madame! you are +overwhelming us to-day with your magnificence." + +I was amused with the response. "Sit down, Victor Favraud, and eat your +dinner Christian-like, without remarks! You have never got over the +spoiling you, received when you lay wounded under this roof. I shall +indulge you no longer." Shaking her long forefinger at him. "Your +familiarity needs to be checked." Her manner of grave and kindly irony +removed all impression of rebuke from this speech, which Major Favraud +received very coolly, spoiled child that he really was, rubbing his +hands as he took the foot of the table. At the sight of the _bouilli_ +before him, from which a savory steam ascended to his epicurean +nostrils, he said, notwithstanding: "Soup and _bouilli_ too! Ah, madame, +I see why you absented yourself so cruelly this morning. You have been +engaged in good works!" + +"Only the sauces, Favraud!--_seulement les sauces_." + +"The sauces--it's just that!--Ude is a mere charlatan in comparison," +turning to me. "Miss Harz, you never tasted any thing before like +madame's soup and sauces. I wish she would take me in partnership for a +while, if only to teach me the recipes that will otherwise die with her. +What a restaurant we two could keep together!" + +"You are too unsteady, Favraud, for my _maitre d'hotel_. Your mind is +too much engrossed by the bubbles of politics, you would spoil all my +materials, and realize the old proverb that 'the devil sends cooks.' But +go to work like a good fellow, and carve the dish before you; by that +time the soup will be removed. I have a fine fish, however, in reserve +(let me announce this at once), for my end of the table." + +"Here are croquets too, as I live," said Duganne, lifting a cover before +him and peeping in, then returning it quietly to its place. "Are you a +fairy, madame?" + +"Much more like a witch," she said, with gayety. "You young men, at +least, think every old, toothless gray-haired crone like me ready for +the stake, you know." + +"Not when they make such steaks," said Dr. Durand, attacking the dish, +with its savory surroundings, before him. + +"Ah! you make calembourgs, my good doctor.--What do you call them, +Favraud? It is one of the few English words I do not know--or forget. I +believe, to make them, however, is a medical peculiarity." + +"Puns, madame, puns, not pills. Don't forget it now. It is time you were +beginning to master our language. You know you are almost grown up!" and +Favraud looked at her saucily. + +"A language which madame speaks more perfectly than any foreigner I have +ever known," I remarked. She bowed in answer, well pleased. + +In truth, the accent of Madame Grambeau was barely detectable, and her +phraseology was that of a well-translated book--correct, but not +idiomatic, and bearing about it the idiosyncrasy of the language from +which it was derived. She was evidently a person of culture and native +power of intellect combined, and her finely-moulded face, as well as +every gesture and tone, indicated superiority and character. + +In that lonely wild, and beneath that lowly roof, there abode a spirit +able and worthy to lead the _coteries_ of the great, and to preside over +the councils of statesmen, and (to rise in climax) the drawing-room of +the _grande monde_. But it was her whim rather than her necessity to +tarry where she could alone be strictly independent, a _sine qua non_ of +her being. + +The son she had led by the hand from Hew York to Georgia, and who, +standing by her side, distinctly remembered to have seen the head of the +Princess Lamballe borne on a pole through the streets of Paris, was now +a prominent member of the Legislature, and, through his rich wife, the +incumbent of a great plantation. + +But the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that philosophic sign-post, +still influenced his mother, in her refusal to live under his splendid +roof, and partake of his bounty, however liberally offered. + +"I have a home of my own," she said, "a few faithful servants, brains, +and energy still, besides a small account with General Curzon, in his +bank at Savannah, wherewith to meet emergencies; while these things +last, I will owe to no man or woman for bread or shelter. And, when +these depart, may the grave cover my bones, and the good God receive my +soul!" + +Books alone she accepted as gifts from her son, and of these, in a +little three-cornered library, she had a goodly store in the two +languages which she read with equal facility, if not delight. + +She showed us this nook before we left, and I saw, lying face downward, +as she had recently left it, the volume she was then perusing at +intervals--one of Madame Sand's novels, "Les Mauprats," I remember, a +singular and powerful romance, then recently issued, whose root I have +always thought might be found in Walter Scott's "Rob Roy," and more +particularly in the Osbaldistone family commemorated in that work. + +On suggesting this to Madame Grambeau, she too saw the resemblance I +spoke of, and she agreed, with me, that the coincidence of genius +furnished many such parallels, where no charge of plagiarism could be +attached to either side. + +A few bottles of "wild-berry wine," as Elizabeth Barrett called such +fluids, were added to the dinner toward its close, and Marion begged +permission to have her basket of cakes and fruits brought in for +dessert, which else had been wanting to our repast; to which request +Madame Grambeau graciously acceded. + +"I make no confections," she said, "but I have lived on the juices of +good meats, well prepared, with such vegetables as the Lord lets grow in +this poor region, many years, and behold I am old and still able to do +his service!" + +"And a little good wine, too, occasionally--eh, madame?" added Major +Favraud, impertinently. + +"When attainable, Favraud. You drank good wine yourself, when you were +here, and I partook with you moderately. But I buy none such. I drown +not, Clarence-like, even in butts of malmsey, my hard-earned gold; and I +own I am not fond of the juices of the muscadine of your hills;" and she +tapped her snuffbox. + +"You are going to hear her talk now," whispered Favraud; "that is a +sign--equal to General Finistere's--the snuffbox tapping, I mean. The +oracle is beginning to arouse! Come I let me stir her further!" and he +inclined his head before her. + +"I'll tell you what, madame, you must take a little cognac to keep off +the chills of age. I have some of the best, and will send you down a +demijohn, if you say the word; and in return you shall pray for me. I am +a great sinner, Miss Harz thinks." + +"Miss Harz is correct; and we will both promise you our prayers. She, +too, is Catholic, I hope. No? I regret so, for her own sake; but your +brandy I reject, Victor; remember that, and offend me not by sending it. +You must not forget the fate of your malvoisie." + +"Ah, madame, that was cruel! but I have forgiven you long since. I +think, however, that the grape-vines bore better that year than ever +before--thus watered, or wined, I mean.--Just think of it, Miss Harz! To +pour good wine round the roots of a Fontainebleau grape, rather than +replenish the springs of life with it! Was there ever waste like that +since Cleopatra dissolved her pearl in vinegar?" + +"Miss Harz will agree with me that a principle that could not resist the +gift of a dozen bottles of choice wine was little worth. Of such stuff +was made not the fathers of your Revolution. But stay, there is an +explanation due to me, yet unrendered," she pursued, "I am a puzzled +_bourgeoise_, I confess," she said, shaking her head. "Come, Favraud, +explain. Who is this young lady?" + +"A _bourgeoise_ also," I replied for him, anxious to turn the tide of +conversation into another channel for some reasons. "I had thought you +an expatriated marquise, at least, madame!" I continued. "As for me, I +am simply a governess." + +"It is my glory, mademoiselle, to have been of that class to which +belonged Madame Roland herself, and which represented that _juste +milieu_ which maintained the balance of society in France. When the +dregs of the _bas peuple_ rose to the surface of the revolution, +commenced by the sound middle classes, we regarded the scum of +aristocracy as the smaller of the two evils. As soon as the true element +had ceased to assert itself in France, I fled forever from a land of +bloodshed and misrule, and took shelter under the broad wing of your +boasted American eagle." + +"Which still continues to flap over you shelteringly, madame," I +rejoined, somewhat flippantly, I fear, "and will to the end, no doubt; +for, in its very organization, our country can never be subjected to the +fluctuations of other lands--revolt and revolution." + +"I am not so certain of this," she observed, shaking her white head +slowly as she spoke, and, lifting a pinch of snuff from her +tortoise-shell box (the companion of her whole married life, as she +acquainted us), she inhaled it with an air of meditative +self-complacency, then offered it quietly to the gentlemen, who were +still sitting over their wine and peaches; passing by Marion, Alice +Durand, and myself, completely, in this ovation. + +"Good snuff is not to be sneezed at," said Major Favraud. "None offered +to young ladies, it seems," taking a huge pinch, and thrusting it +bravely up his nostrils, as one takes a spoonful of unpleasant medicine. +Then contradicting his own assertion immediately afterward, he succeeded +in expelling most of it in a series of violent sternutatory spasms, +which left him breathless, red-faced, and watery-eyed, with a +handkerchief much begrimed. + +But Madame Grambeau seemed not to have noticed this ridiculous +proceeding, which, of course, created momentary mirth at the expense of +the penitent Favraud, to whom Dr. Durand repeated the tantalizing +saying, that "it is a royal privilege to take snuff gracefully"--giving +the example as he spoke, in a mock-heroic manner, quite as absurd and +irrelevant as Favraud's own. + +Lost in deep thought, and gently tapping her snuffbox as she mused--the +tripod of her inspiration, as it seemed--Madame Grambeau sat silently, +with what memories of the past and what insight into the future none can +know save those like herself grown hoary with wisdom and experience. + +At last she spoke, addressing her remarks to me, as though the careless +words I had hazarded had just been spoken, and the attention of her +hearers undiverted by divers absurdities--among others the affected +gambols of Duganne--anxious to place himself in an agreeable aspect +before both of his _inamoratas_, past and present. + +"I do not agree with you, mademoiselle. I am one of those who think +that in the very framing of this Constitution of ours the dragon's teeth +were sown, whose harvest is not yet produced. Mr. Calhoun, with his +prophetic eye, foresees that this crop of armed men is inevitable from +such germs, as does Mr. Clay, were he only frank, which he is not, +because he deludes himself--the most incurable and inexcusable of all +deceptions." + +And she applied herself again assiduously to her snuffbox, tapping it +peremptorily before opening it, and, with a gloomy eye fixed on space, +she continued: + +"In all lands, from the time of Cassandra and Jeremiah up, there have +been prophets. Prophets for good and prophets for ill--of which some few +have been God-appointed, and the sayings of such alone have been +preserved. The rest vanish away into oblivion like chaff before the +wind--never mind what their achievement, what their boast. + +"In this nation we have only two true prophets, Calhoun and Clay--both +men of equal might, and resolution, and intellect--gifted as beseems +their vocation, masterful and heroic; and to these all other men are +subordinate in the great designs of Providence." + +"Where do you leave Mr. Webster, John Quincy Adams, General Jackson +himself, in such a category, madame?" I asked, eagerly. + +"They are doing, or have done, the work God has appointed for them to +do, I suppose, mademoiselle; but they are accessories merely of the +times, and will pass away with the necessities of the moment." + +"'The earth has bubbles as the water hath, and these are of them,'" said +Major Favraud aside, between his short, set teeth, nodding to me as he +spoke, and lending the next moment implicit attention to what Madame +Grambeau was saying; for the brief pause she had made for another pinch +of snuff was ended, and she continued impetuously, as if no interval had +occurred: + +"Clay is, unconsciously, I trust, for the honor of mankind, fulfilling +his destiny--this great prophet who still refuses to prophesy. He is +entering the wedge for what he declines to admit the possibility of--yet +there must be moments when that eye of power pierces the clouds of +prejudice and party, wherewith it seeks to blind its kingly vision, and +descries the horrors beyond as the result of the acts he is now +committing; and when such moments of clear conviction come to him, the +ambitions tool of a party, I envy not his sensations," and she shook her +head mournfully. "Not Napoleon at St. Helena, not Prometheus on his +rock, were more to be pitied than he! the man whose ambition shall never +know fruition, whose measures shall pass and leave no trace in less than +fifty years after he has ceased to exist--the splendid failure of our +century!" + +She ceased for a moment, with her eye fixed on space, her hands clasped, +her whole face and manner uplifted, as if, indeed, on her likewise the +prophet's mantle had dropped from a chariot of fire. + +"As to Calhoun--he is God-fearing," she continued, fervently. "In the +solitudes of a spiritual Mount Sinai, he has received the tablets of the +Lord, and bends every energy to their fulfillment. He, too, +foresees--not with an eye like Clay's, clear only at intervals--and +clouded by vanity, ambition, and sophistry, at other seasons--he, too, +foresees the coming of our doom! His clear vision embraces anarchy, +dissension, civil war, with all its attendant horrors, as the +consequence of man's injustice; and, like Moses, he beholds the promised +land into which he can never enter! Would that it were given to him to +appoint his Joshua, or even to see him face to face, recognizingly! But +this is not God's will. He lurks among the shadows yet--this Joshua of +the South, but God shall yet search him out and bring him visibly before +the people! Not while I live," she added, solemnly, "but within the +natural lives of all others who sit this day around my table!" + +"She is equal to Madame Le Normand!" said Major Favraud, aside, nodding +approvingly at me. + +"If one waits long enough, most prophecies may be fulfilled," I +ventured; "but, madame, your words point to results too terrible--too +unnatural, it seems to me, ever to be realized in these enlightened +times or in this land of moderation." + +"Child," she responded, "blood asserts itself to the end of races. There +are two separate civilizations in this land, destined some day to come +in fearful conflict; and the wars of Scylla, of the Jews themselves, +shall be outdone in the horror and persistence of that strife of +partners--I will not say brothers--for there is no brotherhood of blood +between South and North, of which Clay and Calhoun stand forth to my +mind as distinct types. No union of the red and white roses possible." + +"But you forget, madame, that Mr. Clay is a Western man, a Virginian, a +Kentuckian, and the representative of slave-holders," I remonstrated. +"His interests are coincident with those of the South. His hope of the +presidency itself vests in his constituents, and the wand would be +broken in his hand were he to lend himself to partiality of any kind. +Mr. Clay is a great patriot, I believe, Jacksonite though I am--he knows +no South nor North, nor East nor West, but the Union alone, solid and +undivided." + +"All this is true," she answered, "in one sense. It is thus he speaks, +and, like all partial parents, even thinks he feels toward his +offspring; but observe his acts narrowly from first to last. He has a +manufacturer's heart, with all his genius. He loves machinery--the sound +of the mill, the anvil, the spinning-jenny, the sight of the ship upon +the high-seas, or steamboat on the river, the roar of commerce, far more +than the work of the husbandman. We are an agricultural people, we of +the South and West--and especially we Southerners, with our poverty of +invention, our one staple, our otherwise helpless habits, incident to +the institution which, however it may be our curse, is still our wealth, +and to which, for the present time, we are bound, Ixion-like, by every +law of necessity. What does this tariff promise? Where will the profit +rest? Where will the loss fall crushingly? The slow torture of which we +read in histories of early times was like to this. Each day a weight was +added to that already lying on the breast of a strong man, bound on his +back by the cords of his oppressors, until relief and destruction came +together, and the man was crushed; such was the _peine forte et dure_." + +"Calhoun is patriarchal,[4] and is now placing all his individual +strength to the task of heaving off this incubus from the breast of our +body politic, but with small avail, for he has no lever to assist +him--no fulcrum whereon to rest it; otherwise he might say with +Archimedes, 'With these I could move a world.' He is unaided, this +eagled-eyed prophet of ours, looking sorrowfully, sagaciously down into +the ages! South Carolina is the Joseph, that his cruel brothers, the +remaining Southern States, have sold to the Egyptians, as a bond-slave. +But they shall yet come to drink of his cup, and eat of his bread of +opinion, in the famine of their Canaan. Nullification shall leave a +fitting successor, as Philip of Macedon left Alexander to carry out his +plans. The abolitionist and the slave-holder are as distinct as were +Charles I. and Cromwell, or Catharine de Medicis and Henry of Navarre. +The germ that Calhoun has planted shall lie long in the earth, perhaps, +but when it breaks the surface, it shall grow in one night to maturity, +like that in your so famous 'Mother Goose' story of 'Jack and his +Bean-stalk,' forming a ladder wherewith to scale the abode of giants and +slay them in their drunken sleep of security. But he who does this deed, +this Joshua of the Lord's, this fierce successor of our gentle Moses, +shall wade through his oceans of blood to gain the stone. God +knoweth--He only--how all this shall end, whether in success or +overthrow. It is so far wrapped in mystery." + +As if she saw from some spiritual height the reign of terror she +predicted, she dropped her head upon her hands and closed her eyes, and +I felt my blood creep slowly through my veins as I followed her in +thought across the waste of woe and desolation. For there was something +in her manner, her voice (august and solemn with age and wisdom as these +were), that impressed all who heard, with or in spite of their own +consent, and for a time profound silence succeeded this harangue. + +Dr. Durand was the first to recover himself. "I trust, my dear madame," +he remarked, "that the substantial horrors realized in your youth still +cast their dark shadows over the coming years, and so deceive you into +prophecies that it is sad to hear from lips so reverent, and which, let +us all pray, may never be realized. You yourself will say amen to that, +I am convinced." + +"Amen!" she murmured. + +"Nonsense, Durand! don't play at hypocrite in your old age, after having +been a true man all your life," broke in Major Favraud. "What is a +conservative, after all, but a social parrot, who repeats 'wise saws and +modern instances,' until he believes himself possessed of the wisdom of +all the ages, and is incapable of conceiving of the existence even of an +original idea?" + +"By-the-by," digressed Duganne, weary of discussion, "hear that old +fellow outside, how he is going on, Favraud, _a propos_ of poll parrots, +you know, as it all else, but the name of the bird, had been lost on his +ear. Just listen!" + +"Yes, hear him, and he edified," was the sarcastic response of Favraud +to Duganne, who took no other notice, even if he understood the point, +than to lead the way to the portico, where swung the cage of the jolly +bird in question; and, headed by Madame Grambeau leaning on her cane, we +followed simultaneously, with the exception of Major Favraud, who +continued at the table with his cigar and cognac-flask, in sullen and +solitary state. + +"Nutmegs and nullification!" shrieked the parrot, as we stood before +him. "Ha, ha, ha!" + +"That is condensing the matter, certainly," I observed. + +"_Bienvenu, compatriote_!" he repeated many times, laughing loudly, the +next moment, as if in mockery. + +"What a fiend it is!" said Marion, timidly; "only look at its black +tongue, Miss Harz! Then what a laugh!" + +"Danton! Danton! have you nothing to say to this strange lady?" said +Madame Grambeau, addressing her bird by name; "you must not neglect my +friends, Danton Pardi!" + +"Bird of freedom, moulting--moulting!" was the whimsical rejoinder. +"Jackson! give us your paw, Old Hick--Hick--Hickory!" + +"This is the stuff Major Favraud taught him," she apologized, "when he +used to lie on his porch day after day, after his hostile meeting with +Juarez, which took place on that hill," signifying the site of the duel +with her slender cane. "It was there they fought their duel, _a +Poutrance_, and I knew it not until too late! His wife was too ill to +come to him at that time, and the task of nursing him devolved on me, +since when, on maternal principles, the lad has grown into my +affections." + +"The lad of forty-odd!" sneered Duganne, unnoticed, apparently, by the +aged lady, however, at the moment, but not without amusing other hearers +by this sally. Dr. Durand was especially delighted. + +"For he is a boy at heart," she said later, "this same Victor Favraud of +ours," gazing reprovingly around. "Indeed, he is the only American I +have ever seen who possessed real _gaiete de coeur_, and for that, I +imagine, he must thank his French extraction." + +"Calhoun and cotton!" "Coal and codfish!" shouted the parrot at the top +of his voice. "Catfish and coffee!"--"Rice cakes for breakfast"--"All in +my eye, Betty Martin"--"Yarns and Yankees"--"Shad and +shin-plasters"--"Yams and yaller boys," and so on, in a string of the +most irrelevant alliteration and folly, that, like much other nonsense, +evoked peals of laughter by its unexpected utterance, and which at last +mollified and brought out Major Favraud himself, from his dignified +retirement. + +"You have ruined the morals of my bird," said Madame Grambeau, +reproachfully. "Approach, Favraud, and justify yourself. In former times +his discourse was discreet. He knew many wise proverbs and polite +salutations in French and English both, most of which he has discarded +in favor of your profane and foolish teachings. He is as bad as the +'Vert-vert' of Voltaire. I shall have to expel him soon, I fear." + +"Danton, how can you so grieve your mistress?" remonstrated Major +Favraud, lifting at the same time an admonitory finger, at which +recognized signal, a part of past instructions probably, the parrot +burst forth at once in a series of the most grotesque and _outre_ oaths +ear ever heard, ending (by the aid of some prompting from his teacher) +by dismally croaking the fragment of a popular song thus travestied: + + "My ole mistis dead and gone, + She lef to me her ole jawbone. + Says she, 'Charge up in dem yaller pines, + And slay dem Yankee Philistines!'"-- + +ending with the invariable "_Bonjour_" or "_Bienvenu, compatriote_," and +demoniac "Ha! ha! ha!" + +"The memory of the creature is perfectly wonderful," I said. "Many +parrots have I seen, but never one like this before. It must have sprung +out of the Arabian Nights." + +"I can teach any thing to every thing," digressed Major Favraud, "and +without severity; it is my specialty. I was meant for a trainer of +beasts, probably. I will get up an entertainment, I believe, in +opposition to the industrious fleas, called the 'Desperate Doves,' and +teach pigeons to muster, drill, and go through all the military motions. +I could do it easily, and so repair my broken fortunes. I have one +already at home that feigns death at the word of command. I have amused +myself for hours at a time with this bird.--Don't say a word, Miss +Harz," speaking low, "I see what you think of it all, but I have had to +cheat misery some way or other. It was a wretched device and waste of +existence, though. And when I see that great, distinguished man, who had +such hopes of me as a boy, I feel that I could creep into an auger-hole +for sheer shame of my extinguished promise." + +"Not extinguished!" I murmured, "only under a cloud, still destined to +be fulfilled." + +"Only in the grave," he said, sadly, "with the promise common to all +mankind;" and thus by gloomy glimpses I caught the truth. + +We staid that night at the house of an aunt of Madame La Vigne's, who +received us cordially, entertained us sumptuously, and dismissed us +graciously. + +The next morning at sunrise we again set out for Savannah, into which +city we entered before the noonday heat, finding cool shelter and warm +welcome at once under the roof of General Curzon, the South's most +polished gentleman and finished man of letters, of whom it may be truly +said that, "Take him for all in all, we ne'er shall look upon his like +again." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: It need not for one moment be supposed that the opinions of +the author are represented through the extremist Favraud. To her Mr. +Bryant stands forth as the high-priest of American poetry.] + +[Footnote 2: The tariff.] + +[Footnote 3: Since writing the above, the admirable picture of Mr. +Healey has filled this void; and those who have seen good copies of this +work, executed for and by the order of Louis Philippe, may have a clear +idea of that glorious countenance, the like of which we shall not see +again. + +Perhaps it was from this very personal magnetism of which I have spoken +that Healey succeeded better with the portrait of Mr. Calhoun than any +of the others he was sent to this country to paint.] + +[Footnote 4: It was about this time that Mr. Calhoun made his famous +anti-tariff crusade throughout the land, it may be remembered by some of +my readers.] + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Before leaving the hospitable roof of General Curzon--beneath which I +tarried for several days--awaiting the tardy sailing of the +packet-steamer Kosciusko, bound for New York, circumstances determined +me to leave in the hands of my host a desk which I had intended to carry +with me, and which contained most of my treasures. First among these, +indisputably, in intrinsic value were my diamonds--"sole remnant of a +past magnificence;" but the miniatures of my father and mother, and +Mabel, in the cases of which locks of twisted hair--brown, and black, +and golden, and gray--were contained and combined (dear, imperishable +memorials of vitality in most instances when all the rest was dust and +ashes), and the early letters of my parents, together with the +carefully-kept diary I had written at Beauseincourt, ranked beyond these +even in my estimation. + +The cause of this deposit of valuables was simply owing to the unstable +lock of my trunk, the condition of which was detected too late to have +it repaired before sailing. Madame Curzon had suggested to me the unsafe +nature of such custody for objects of price, if, indeed, I possessed +such at all. I told her then of my diamonds, and it was agreed between +us that these, at least, had better be deposited in the bank of her +husband, who would bring them to me himself a few months later--and on +reflection I concluded to add my desk, pictures, and papers, to _my_ +more substantial treasures. These, at least, I felt assured no accident +should throw into the hands of Bainrothe. + +On my way to the ship I left the carriage for a moment, in pursuance +with this idea, and, followed by King, the bearer of my large and +weighty desk, entered the banking-house of my host, and was shown at +once, by attentive clerks, to his peculiar sanctum. I told him my errand +in a few words. + +"Keep it until called for, unless you hear from me in the interval," I +had said in allusion to my deposit, for he acknowledged the chances were +slight of his leaving home until the following year, notwithstanding +Madame Curzon's convictions. + +"Called for by whom?" he asked, calmly. + +"By Miriam Monfort in person or her order," I replied, laughingly, "This +is a mystery that, by-and-by, shall be explained to you." + +"I understand something of that already," he rejoined. "Marion has been +whispering to the reeds, you know, or Madame Curzon, the same thing +nearly; but let us be earnest, as your time is short, and mine precious +to-day. Life is uncertain, and, young and strong as you are, or seem to +be, you cannot foresee one hour even of the future, or of your own +existence. Suppose Miriam Monfort neither comes in person nor sends her +order for its restoration--what, then, is to become of this +treasure-chest of hers?" + +"You shall keep it then," I replied, unhesitatingly, "until my little +sister reaches her majority, and cause it to be placed in her own hands, +none other--or, stay, let her have it on the day before her marriage, +should this occur earlier than the time mentioned, or when she reaches +her eighteenth year in any case; but, above all things, be careful." + +"So many conflicting directions confuse and mystify me, I confess. Come, +let me write down your wishes, and the matter can be arranged formally, +which is always best in any case. There, I think I have the gist of your +idea," he said a few moments later, as he pushed over to me a slip of +paper to read and sign, which done, I shook hands with him cordially, +preparing to go. "But your receipt--you have forgotten to take it up!" + +"O General Curzon! the whole proceeding seems so ominous," I said, +turning back at the door to receive the proffered scrap, which, in +another moment, dropped from my nerveless fingers, while these, clasped +over my streaming eyes, forgot their office. + +"My dear young lady," he remonstrated, "I am shocked. What can have +occurred to impress you thus? Not this mere routine of affairs, +surely?--Duncan, a glass of water here for Miss Monfort." + +"I do not know, I am sure, why I should be so weak for such a trifle," I +said, after a few swallows of ice-water had somewhat restored my +equilibrium; "but I do feel very dismally about this voyage--have done +so ever since I left Beauseincourt. This is the last straw on the +camel's back, believe me, General Curzon. You must not reproach yourself +in the least--nor me; and now let me bid you farewell once more, perhaps +eternally!" + +These words of mine were remembered later in a very different spirit +from that in which they were then received (one of incredulous +compassion)--remembered as are ever the last utterances of the doomed, +whether innocent or guilty, in solemn awe and reverential tenderness, +not unmingled with a superstitions faith in presentiment. + +"Why, you look bluer than your very obvious veil, bluer than your +invisible school-marmish stockings, bluer than the skies, or a blue bag, +or Madame de Stael's 'Corinne,' or Byron's 'dark-blue ocean,'" said +Major Favraud, as he assisted me again into the carriage, where Dr. +Durand and Marion awaited me, for, as I have said, we were now on our +way to the vessel which was to bear me and my destinies forever from +that lovely Southern land in which I had seen and suffered so much. + +Dr. Durand looked serious at the sight of my woful aspect, and Marion +mutely proffered her _vinaigrette_, gratefully accepted, as was the good +doctor's compassionate silence; but, as usual, Favraud, after having +once gotten fairly under weigh, ran on. "What is the use of bewailing +the inevitable?" he pursued. "We have all seen your _penchant_ for +Curzon, and his for you, for three days past; but Octavia is as tough as +_lignum-vitae_, I regret to assure you, my dear Miss Harz, and your +chance is _as blue_ as your spirits, or the flames of snap-dragon, or +Marion's eyes. You will have to just put up with the captain, I fear, +for even the doctor there is in harness for life. Southern women, you +know, proverbially survive their husbands; and, as the suttee is out of +fashion, they sometimes have to marry Yankees as a _dernier ressort_ of +desperation! Of course, there are occasional sad exceptions"--looking +grave for a moment, and glancing at the black hat-band on the Panama hat +he was nursing on his knees, so as to let the breeze blow through his +silky, silver-streaked black hair--"but--but--in short, why will you all +look so doleful? Isn't it bad enough to feel so?" + +"The loveliest fade earliest, we all know," and the tears were in his +honest, frivolous eyes, dashed away in the next moment as he exclaimed, +eagerly, "Why, there goes the Lamarque equipage, as I live! I had +forgotten all about it. The pleasantest woman in Savannah, young or old, +is to be your _compagnon de voyage_, Miss Harz, and the most determined +widower on record her escort; a perfect John Rogers of a man, with nine +little motherless children, her brother Raguet ('Rag,' as we called him +at school, on account of his prim stiffness, so that 'limber as a rag' +seemed a most preposterous saying in his vicinity). He is handsome, +however, and intelligent, a perfect gentleman, but on the mourners' +bench just now, like some others you know of"--heaving a deep sigh. "His +wife, poor thing, died last autumn--a pretty girl in her day was +Cornelia Huger! I was a little weak in that direction once +myself--before--that is, before--O doctor! what a trouble it is to +remember!" + +And again the small, fleet hand was dashed across the twinkling, tearful +eyes of this April day of a middle-aged man of the world--this modern +Mercutio--merry and mournful at once, as if there were two sides to his +every mood, like the famous shield of story. When we reached the quay +the Kosciusko was already getting up her steam, and, in less than an +hour afterward, the friends I loved were gone like dreams, the bustle of +departure was over, and, with lifted canvas and a puffing engine, we +were grandly steaming past the noble forts (poor Bertie's broach and +buckle, be it remembered) on our path of pride and power toward the +broad Atlantic. + +The weather was oppressively hot, and, for the first thirty-six hours, +scarcely a breath of wind lifted us on our way, so that the engine, +wholly incompetent to the work of both sails and machinery, bore us very +slowly on our northward ocean-flight. Indeed, the failure of this +engine to do its duty, at first, had sorely disheartened both captain +and crew as we found later, for upon its execution and energies, in the +beginning, had rested our entire dependence. + +On the evening of the second day's voyage, a sudden and violent +thunder-storm occurred, not unusual in those latitudes; during the +raging of which our mainmast was struck by lightning, and wholly +disabled. + +The fire was extinguished in the only possible manner, by cutting it +away from the decks, letting it gently down upon them, deluging it, so +that our mast lay charred and blackened after its bath of sea-water, +like a mighty serpent stretched along the ship, from stem to stern, and +wrapped loosely in its shrouds. It did us good service later, though not +by defying the winds of heaven, nor spreading forth its snowy sails to +catch the tropic breezes. + +Before many hours, it was destined to ride the waves in a shape that was +certainly never intended by those who chose it among many others--taper +and stately in its group of firs--to be the chief adornment of a gallant +ship, and lift a pointing finger to the stars themselves, as an index of +its might, and, with this exception, the hope of those it served--that +of a charred and blackened life-raft. + +The renewed freshness of the atmosphere, and the joyful upspringing of +the breezes, alone remained, at midnight, to tell the story of the +recent hurricane. + +These tropic breezes came like benevolent fairies, to aid our groaning +Titan in his labors. + +I can never rid myself for one moment of the idea that an engine really +works, with weary, reluctant strength like a genii slave, waiting +vengefully for the time of retaliation, which sooner or later is sure to +come; or of the visionary notion that a graceful, gliding ship, with +all sails set, receives the same pleasure from its own motion and beauty +that a snow-white swan must do "as down she bears before the gale," with +her white plumage and stately crest. + +I think, if ever I am called to give a toast, it shall be "Sail-ships; +may their shadows never be less!" They are, indeed, a part of the +romance of ocean. + +The moon was full, in the balmy summer night that succeeded the tempest, +and the ship's quarter-deck was crowded with the passengers of the +Kosciusko, enjoying to the utmost, as it seemed, the delicious, +newly-washed atmosphere, the moonlit heavens and sea, the +exquisitely-caressing softness of the tardily-awakened breezes that +filled the white sails of the vessel, and fluttered the silken scarf of +the maiden, with the same wooing breath of persuasive, subtle strength. + +Around Miss Lamarque, the lady of whom Major Favraud had spoken so +admiringly, and to whose kindness he had committed me, a group had +gathered, chiefly of the young, not to be surpassed in any land for +manly bearing, graceful feminine beauty, gayety, wit, and refinement. + +There was Helen Oscanyan, fair as a dream of Greece, in her serene, +marble perfectness of form and feature; and the lovely Mollie Cairns, +her cousin, small, dark, and sparkling--both under the care of that +stately gentleman, their uncle, Julius Severe, of Savannah; and there +were the sisters Percy, twins in age and appearance, with voices like +brook-ripples, and eyes like wood-violets, and feet of Chinese +minuteness and French perfection--the darlings and only joys of a mother +still beautiful, though sad in her widowhood, and gentle as the dove +that mourns its mate. + +There was the brilliant Ralph Maxwell, whose jests, stinging and slight, +just glanced over the surface of society without inflicting a wound, +even as the skater's heel glides over ice, leaving its mark as it goes, +yet breaking no crust of frost; and there was the poetic dreamer +Dartmore, with his large, dark eyes, and moonlight face, and manner of +suffering serenity, on his way to put forth for fame, as he fondly +believed, his manuscript epic on the "Sorrows of the South." + +All these, and more, were there gathering about the leader of their +home-society, on that alien deck, as securely as though they were +sitting in her own drawing-room at "Berthold," on one of her brilliant +reception-evenings. + +How could they know--how could they dream the truth--or descry the +hidden skeleton at the festival, wreathed in flowers and veiled with +glittering, filmy draperies, which yet put forth its bony fingers to +beckon on and clutch them? + +I too was joyous and unconscious as the rest, and for the first time for +many days felt the burden literally heaved rather than lifted away that +had oppressed me. + +Was I not on my way to him in whose presence alone I lived my true life? +and what feeling of his morbid fancy was there that my hand could not +smooth away, when once entwined in his? Beauseincourt, and all its +shadows, had I not put behind me? The sunshine lay before, and in its +light and warmth I should still rejoice, as it was my birthright to do. + +I was "fey" that night, as the Scotch say, when an unaccountable +lightness of mood precedes a heavy sorrow, which it so often does, as +well as the more usual mood, the presage of gloom. I felt that I had the +power to put aside all ills--to grapple with my fate, and compel back +my lost happiness. Truly my bosom's lord sat lightly on her throne, as +of late it had not been her wont to do. + +Against my inclination had I been drawn into the current of that +youthful gayety, and now my bark floated without an effort on the +stream. I was in my own element again, and my powers were all +responsive. + +The small hours came--the happy group dispersed--not without many +interchanges of social compliment, much _badinage_, and merry plans for +the morrow. The monster Sea-sickness had been defied on the balmy +voyage, save in the brief interval of tempest, and his victors mocked +him, baffled as he was, with their purpose of amusement. + +"We shall get up the band to-morrow evening," said Major Ravenel, "and +have a dance; the gallop would go grandly here. See what reach of +quarter-deck we have! There are Germans on board who play in concert +violins and wind-instruments." + +"Suppose we dress as sea-nymphs," said Honoria Pyne; "enact a masque for +old Neptune's benefit? It would be so complimentary, you know; bring +down the house, no doubt, I have a sea-green tarlatan lying so +conveniently. Colonel Latrobe looks exactly like a Triton, with that +wondrous beard. A little alum sprinkled over its red-gold ground would +do wonders in the way of effect--would be gorgeous--wouldn't it, now, +Miss Harz?" + +"But all that could be done on shore as well, Miss Pyne," I replied, in +the way of reminiscence. "It is a pity to waste our opportunities of +observation now, in getting up costumes; and, for my part, I confess +that I have a wholesome dread of these sea-deities, and fear to +exasperate their finny feelings by reducing them to effigies. Thetis is +very spiteful, sometimes; and jealous, too, you remember." + +Miss Pyne did not remember, but did not mean to be baffled either, she +would let Miss Harz know, even if that lady _did_ know more about +mythology than herself; and, if no one else would join her, meant to +play her _role_ of sea-nymph all alone, with Major Latrobe for her +Triton in waiting, tooting upon a conch-shell, and looking lovely! At +which compliment, open and above-board, poor Major Latrobe, who was over +head and ears in love with her, and a very ugly man, only bowed and +looked more silly than before, which seemed a work of supererogation. + +After the rest were gone, Miss Lamarque and I concluded to promenade on +the nearly-deserted deck, in the moonlight, and let the excitement of +the evening die away through the medium of more serious conversation. +She was a woman of forty-five, still graceful and fine-looking, but +bearing few traces of earlier beauty, probably better to behold, in her +overripe maturity, than in the unfolding of her less attractive time of +bud and blossom. Self had been laid aside now (which it never can be +until the effervescence of youth and hope are over). She had accepted +her position of old maid and universal benefactress, and sustained it +nobly, gracefully. She was thoroughly well-bred and agreeable, very +vivacious, astute, and intelligent, rather than intellectual, yet she +had the capacity (had her training been different) to have been both of +these. + +I remember how it chanced that, after a long promenade, during which we +had discussed men, manners, books, customs, costumes, and politics, even +(that once tabooed subject for women, now free to all), with infinite +zest and responsiveness that charmed us mutually, so that we swore +allegiance on the strength of this one day's rencontre, like two +school-girls or knights of old--I remember how the dropping of her comb +at his feet caused Miss Lamarque to pause, compelling me to follow her +example, by reason of our intertwined arms, in front of the man at the +wheel, as he stooped to raise it and hand it to her with a seaman's bow. +His ready politeness, unusual for one in his station, determined us to +cultivate his maritime acquaintance, and in a short time we had drawn +forth the outlines of his story, simple and bare as this was of +incident. + +His picturesque appearance had impressed us equally during the day, but +until now we had not met in concert about Christian Garth, for such we +soon found was the name of our polite pilot. + +He was a Jerseyman, he told us, of German descent, married to the girl +of his heart, and living on the coast of that adventurous little State, +famous alike for its peaches and wrecks. + +"Sall had a stocking full of money," he informed us, silver, and copper, +and gold, when he married her, for her mother had been a famous +huckster--and never missed her post in the Philadelphia market for +thirty years, and this was her child's inheritance, and with this money +he had fixed up his old hut, till it looked 'e'en a'most inside like a +ship-captain's cabin.' + +And now Sall wanted him to stay at home, he informed us, with her and +the children, but somehow or other he could never tarry long at the +hearth, for the sea pulled him like it was his mother, and the spell of +the tides was on him, and he must foller even if he went to his own +destruction, like them men that liquor lures to loss, or the love of +mermaids. + +"All land service is dead when likened to the sea," he said, shaking his +great water-dog head, and looking out lovingly upon his idol. "But ships +a'n't like they oncst was, ladies," he added, "before men put these here +heavy iron ingines to work in 'em--it's like cropping a bird's wing to +make a river-boat of a ship, and a burning shame to shorten sails till +it looks like a young gal dressed in breeches or any other onnatural +thing--for a sailing-ship and a full-flowing petticoat always rise up in +a true man's mind together--God bless them both, I say." + +"To which we cordially say amen, of course," said Miss Lamarque, +laughing. "We should have been at a loss, however, Mr. Garth, but for +our engine during the dead calm preceding the storm, when our ship's +sails flapped so lazily about her masts, and she rocked like a baby's +cradle without making progress. It is well the engineer manoeuvred so +successfully while we lay fireless on the low rolling waves; but we are +speeding along merrily enough now, to make up for it all--I take comfort +in that--" + +"But not exactly in the right direction, though, to suit my stripe," he +said, turning his quid in his mouth us he looked out to leeward, +revealing, as he did so, a fine yet rugged profile relieved against the +silvery purple sheen of the moonlit sky. + +"Do you see that dark object lying beyond" (our eyes mechanically +followed his), "so still on the water?" and he indicated it with the +pipe he held in one sinewy hand--for the native courtesy of the man had +involuntarily proffered us the homage of removing it from his lips, when +we addressed him. + +"Yes--what is it? a wreck? a whale? a small volcanic island? Do explain, +Mr. Garth," said Miss Lamarque. + +"Nothing but an iceberg, and we are bearing down upon it rather too +rapidly, it seems to me." + +And so speaking, he turned his wheel in silence warily. + +"But you have the command of the helm, and have nothing to do but--" + +"Obey orders," he interrupted, grimly. "Ef the captain was to tell me to +run the ship to purgatory, I'd have to do it, you know." + +"But surely the captain would not jeopardize the lives of a ship's +company, even if he likes warm latitudes, by ordering you to run foul of +an iceberg; and, if he did, you certainly would not dare to obey him +with the fear of God before your eyes?" remonstrated Miss Lamarque, +indignantly. "For my part I shall go to him immediately and desire him +to change his course--but after all I don't believe that dingy black +thing is an iceberg at all--an old hen-coop rather, thrown over from +some merchant-ship, or a vast lump of charred wood. You are only trying +to alarm us." + +"Ef you was to see it close enough, you would find it to shine equal to +the diamond on your hand; but I hope you never will, that's all--I hope +you never will, lady! I sot on a peak of that sort oncst myself for +three days in higher latitudes than this here--me and five others, all +that was spared from the wreck of the schooner Delta, and we felt our +convoy melting away beneath us, and courtesying e'en a'most even with +the sea, before the merchant-ship Osprey took us off, half starved, and +half frozen, and half roasted all at oncst! Them is onpleasant +rickollections, ladies, and it makes my blood creep to this day to see +an iceberg in konsikence; but a man must do his dooty, whatsomever do +betide. It was in the dead of night, and Hans Schuyler had the wheel, I +remember, when we went to pieces on that iceberg, all for disregarding; +the captain's orders; you see, he meant to graze it like!" + +"Graze it!" almost shrieked Miss Lamarque. "Did he think he was driving +a curricle? Graze it--Heaven, what rashness!" + +"Don't--don't! Mr. Garth," I petitioned; "I shall never sleep a wink on +this ship if you continue your narrative." + +"Do--do! Mr. Garth," entreated Miss Lamarque, whose penetration showed +her by this time that the pilot was only playing on our fears, for want +of a better instrument for his skill. "I quite enjoy the idea that you +have actually been astride a fragment of the arctic glacier, and that we +may perhaps make the acquaintance of a white bear ourselves when we get +near our iceberg, or a gentle seal. Wouldn't you like one for a pet, +Miss Harz?" + +"It is very cold," I said, digressively. "I feel the chill of that +fragment of Greenland freeze my marrow. I must go fetch my shawl; but +first reassure us, Mr. Garth, if possible." + +He laughed. "I have paid you now for making fun of me to-day," he said, +saucily. "I saw your drawing of me in your books, and heard the ladies +laughing. I peeped as I passed when Myers took the helm, and I wanted to +see what all the fun was about; then I said to myself, 'I will give her +a skeer for that if I have a chance'--but, all the same, the chill you +feel is a real one, for as sure as death that lump of darkness is an +iceberg. I have told you no yarn, as you will find out to-morrow when +you ask the captain. I'll steer you clear of the iceberg though, ladies, +never fear. Hans Schuyler has not got the wheel to-night--you see he was +three sheets in the wind anyhow, and the captain says, 'Hans,' says he, +'don't tech another drop this night, or we'll never see another mornin' +till we are resurrected,' and so he turned into his hammock and swung +himself to sleep--a way he had, for he didn't keer for nothin' where his +comfort was concerned, having been raised up in the Injies." + +"Come, Miss Lamarque," I interrupted. "I must not hear another word. +'Macbeth doth murder sleep,' and I shall be nervous for a month after +this. So, good-night, Mr. Garth, and be sure you merit your first name +by taking good care of us while we imitate the example of your worthy +captain and 'swing ourselves to sleep,' or rather let the waves perform +that office for us. I shall make it my care to-morrow morning early, if +you still hold the helm, to show you my sketch, and convince you that it +was never made for fun at all, but that it is a real portrait of a very +fine-looking seaman, a real viking in appearance, and somewhat better +than one at heart, I trust. I shall hope to earn your good opinion +instead of ill-will, when you have only seen my sketch." + +"You have it already, you have it already, young gal--young miss, I +mean," he said, with a wave of the hand, which meant to be courteous, no +doubt, but seemed only defiant. "An' this much I kin say without injury +to Sall--that I'd rather hear you talk and see you smile, as I has been +watchin' of you constant do to-day, than go to the circus in New York, +or even to a Spanish bull-fight, or hear a Fourth-of-July oration, or +'tend camp-meetin'--and that's saying no little--an' no iceberg shall +come near you while Christian Garth lays a hand upon this helm. But +don't be skeered, ladies; no harm will come to the good ship Kosciusko." + +"I declare our pilot is quite chivalrous, as far as you are concerned, +for I marked his glance, Miss Harz," said Miss Lamarque, archly, as we +turned our faces cabinward, under the protection of our helmsman's +promised vigilance. "See what it is to be young and pretty, and remark +the truth of the old proverb, as exemplified in his case, that 'extremes +meet.' Victoria herself is not more independent of me or my +position--established facts as both are in the eyes of some--than is +Christian Garth. To him, this outsider of the world of fashion, I am +only a homely old woman; no prestige comes in to garnish the unvarnished +fact--a plain old maid, my dear--with not even the remembrance of beauty +as a consolation, nor its remnant as a sign of past triumphs, 'only this +and nothing more,' as that wonderful man Poe makes his raven say. We +never find our level until we go among people who know and care nothing +about us, who have never 'heard of us'--that exordium of most greetings +from folks of our own class. It is absolutely refreshing to be so +unaffectedly despised and slighted--it does one a world of good, there +is no doubt of that, especially when one's grandfather was a +Revolutionary notability, and other antecedents of a piece--but men are +all alike at heart, only the worldly ones wear flimsy masks, you know, +and pretend to adore intellect and ugliness, when beauty is the only +thing they care for--all a sham, my dear, in any case." + +"Yes, all alike," I repeated, making, as I spoke, one mental entire +reservation. "All _vain_ alike, I mean; flatter their vanity ever so +little and they are at your very feet, asking 'for more,' like Oliver +Twist; more bread for _amour propre_, the insatiable! It was that sketch +of mine that wrought the spell, though unintentionally, of course, and +the sly fellow knew very well that it was no caricature--that is, if he +peeped, as he pretends--but a tolerably correct likeness that might have +satisfied Sall herself. By-the-by, I have a great mind to bestow it upon +him as a 'sop for Cerberus,' should her jealousy ever be aroused by your +reports of his devotion to me, or admiration rather, most unequivocally +avowed, it must be acknowledged. I really had no intention of injuring +Sally, and, if you think it best, will make the _amende honorable_ by +being as cross as possible to him to-morrow." + +"No, no, carry out your first intention and conciliate him; for, +remember, he has us in the hollow of his hand. Bestow the picture, by +all means, and just as many smiles and compliments as he can stand, or +you can afford to squander; for you are worse than a mermaid, Miss Harz, +for fascination, all the gentlemen say so; and, as to Captain +Falconer--" + +"They are malignants," I rejoined, ignoring purposely the last clause of +the sentence which I had interrupted; "and you are perfidious to hear +them slander me so. I hate fascinating people; they always make my flesh +crawl like serpents. The few I have known have been so very base." "Good +specimens of '_thorough_ bass,'" she interpolated, laughing.--"I am sure +I am glad I have no attributes of fascination, if a strange old work I +met with at Beauseincourt may be considered responsible. Did you ever +see it, Miss Lamarque, you who see every thing? Hieronymus Frascatorius +tells of certain families in Crete who fascinated by praising, and to +avert this evil influence some charm was used consisting of a magic +word (I suppose this was typical of humility, though related as +literal). This _naivete_ on the part of the old chronicler was simply +_impayable_, as Major Favraud would say, with his characteristic shrug. +One _Varius_ related (you see my theme has full possession of me, and +the book is a collation of facts on the subject of fascination of all +kinds, even down to that of the serpent) that a friend of his saw a +fascinator with a look break in two a precious gem in the hands of a +lapidary--typical this, I suppose, of some fond, foolish, female heart. +Fire, according to this author, represents the quality of fascination; +and toads and moths are subject to its influence, as well as some higher +animals--deer, for instance, who are hunted successfully with torches; +and he relates, further, that in Abyssinia artificers of pottery and +iron are thus fearfully endowed, and are consequently forbidden to join +in the sacred rites of religion, as fire is their chief agent. Isn't +this a strange, quaint volume, to set before a king? and how do you like +my lecture delivered _extempore_?" + +"Oh, vastly! but I did not know that was your style before. Don't +cultivate it, dear, if you hope to win manly hearts. Men like to do all +the lecturing themselves, and I find it diplomatic to feign profound +ignorance on all subjects outside of a bandbox; it delights them so to +enlighten us. No wonder they fancy us fools when we feign foolishness so +admirably--lapwings that we are!" + +"But I never do, in such society. My experience is different from yours. +I always pretend to know twice as much as I do, when they are about; it +bluffs them off, and they are credulous sometimes as well as ignorant, +notwithstanding their boasted acumen." + +"Your lamp of experience needs trimming, my pretty Miriam," she said, +shaking her head, "if you really believe this. They never forgive +superiority, assumed or real; none but the noble ones, I mean; who, of +course, are in the minority. Give a pair of tongs pantaloons, and it +asserts itself. Trousers, my dear, are at the root of manly presumption. +I discovered that long ago. A man in petticoats would be as humble as a +woman. This is my theory, at least; take it for what it is worth. And +now to sleep, with what heart we may, an iceberg being in our vicinity;" +and, taking my face in her hand, she kissed me cordially. "It is very +early in our acquaintance for such manifestations to be allowable," she +said, kindly, "but I am a sort of spoiled child of society, and dare to +be natural. I consider that the best privilege that attaches to my +condition, that of the 'bell-wether' of Savannah _ton_--the +universally-accepted bore! You know--Favraud has told you, of course; he +always characterizes as he goes." + +"He has called you the most agreeable woman in Savannah, I remember, +young or old, and was truly glad, on my account, to know that you were +on board. Of your brother he spoke very kindly also, even admiringly." + +"Oh, yea, I know; but of Raguet there is little question now. His wife's +death has crushed him. I never saw so changed a man; he is half idiotic, +I believe; and I am with him now just to keep those children from +completing the work of destruction. Six little motherless ones--only +think--and as bad as they can possibly be; for poor Lucilla was no +manager. Isn't it strange, the influence those little cottony women get +over their husbands? You and I might try forever to establish such +absolute despotism, all in vain. It is your whimpering sort that rule +with the waving of a pocket-handkerchief; but poor, dear little woman, +she is powerless now; and I suppose the next will be like unto her. +Raguet would never look at any thing feminine that hadn't white eyes and +pink hair (yellow, I mean, of course)--his style, you know, being dark +and stern, he likes the downy, waxy kind. All this is shockingly +egotistical; but the question is, who that has a spark of individuality +is otherwise? Good-night, again, and may all sweet dreams attend you; +for my part, I never dream, being past the dreaming age, and realities +fortunately disappear with daylight; even cross children are wheedled +into quietness, and servants forget to fidget and giggle; and, for +mosquitoes, there are bars. Adieu." + +And thus we parted, never to meet again in mutual mood like this! + +Yet, had the free agency of which some men boast been ours, we had +scarcely chosen to face the awful change--to look into each other's eyes +through gathering death-doom! + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Before my dreaming eyes was the terror of a hungry, crunching tooth, +fixed in the vessel's side, that of the iceberg, lying black in the +moonlight like a great coal crystal, grimly awaiting our approach, but +the reality, as well as the figment, had disappeared when I emerged at +sunrise from the suffocating cabin, to the atmosphere of the cool and +quiet quarter-deck, which had just undergone its matutinal. + +Armed with an orange and a biscuit for physical refreshment, I depended +on sea and sky for my mental entertainment; and in my hand I bore a +slender scroll, destined as a propitiatory offering to our offended +helmsman. + +I was glad to find again at the wheel our pilot of yesterday. + +"Your iceberg has disappeared, Mr. Garth," I said, as I extended to him +the sketch I had made of his noble _physique_ the day before, "and here +is a picture for your wife, which she will see was not drawn for fun. +Women are sharper than men about such matters. There, I bestow it not +without regret." He received my offering with a smile, and nod of his +great curly head, opened it, gazed long and seriously upon it, and, with +the single word "Good," rolled it up again, and consigned it to some +bosom pocket in his flannel shirt, into which it seemed to glide as a +telescope into its case, revealing, as he did so, glimpses of a hairy +breast, and vigorous chest, more admirable for strength than beauty, +certainly. + +"I will keep it there," he said, "young miss," pressing it closely +against his side with his colossal hand, "until I get safe home to the +Jarseys, and to Sall, or go to Davy's locker, one or other, but which it +will be, young gal--young miss, I should be saying--is not for me to +know." + +"Nor for anyone," I rejoined, solemnly; "all rests with God." + +"With God and our engineer," he resumed, tersely; "them sails is of +little account, now the mainmast is struck away; them floppen +petticoats, wat the wind loves to play in and out, layin' along like a +lazy lubber that it is, and leaving its work for others to do. It was a +noble mast, though, while it stood--and you could smell the turpentine +blood in its heart to the very last. It was as limber as a sapling, and +never growed brittle, like some wood, with age and dryness. No storm +could splinter it, and it would fling itself over into the high waves +sometimes, rayther than snap and lash them like a whip. But there it +lies, burned with the fire of heaven's wrath, at last, and leaving its +fires of hell behind, in the heart of the Kosciusko." + +"You have changed your mind on the subject of engines, Mr. Garth, I am +glad to see. Truly, ours seems to be doing giant's work; now we are +flying, to be sure." + +"Rushing, not flying, young lady--that's the word; our wings are little +use to-day, you see, such as are left to us. Runnin' for dear life, we'd +better say, for that's the truth of the matter, and may the merciful +Lord speed us, and have in his care all helpless ones this day!" + +The lifted hand, the bared head, the earnest accents, with which these +words were spoken, gave to this simple utterance of good-will all the +solemnity of a benediction or prayer. + +I noticed that, after replacing his tarpaulin, the lips of Garth +continued to move silently, then were compressed gravely for a time, +while his eye, large, clear, and expressive, was fixed on space. + +"Do you still see an iceberg, Mr. Garth? Do you really apprehend danger +for us now?" I asked, after studying his countenance for a moment, "or, +are you again desirous to try the nerves of your female passengers? I +think I must apply to the captain this time for information." + +"Yes, danger," he replied, in low, sad tones, ignoring my last remark, +or perhaps not hearing it at all--"danger, compared with which an +iceberg might be considered in the light of a heavenly marcy. There is a +chance of grazing one of them snow-bowlders, or of its drifting away +from a ship, when the ripples reach it, or, if the wust comes, a body +can scramble overboard, and manage to live on the top of one of them +peaks, or in one of their ice-caves, with a few blankets, and a little +bread and junk and water, fur a space, so as to get a chance of meetin' +a ship, or a schooner; but, when there is something wrong in a ship's +heart, there a'n't much hope for rescue, onless it comes from above." + +He hesitated, smiling grimly, rolled his quid, crammed his hat down over +his eyes, and again addressed himself to his wheel, and, for a few +moments, I stood beside him silently. + +"The ship is leaking, I suppose," I said, at last, "so that you +apprehend her loss, perhaps," and my heart sank coldly within me, as I +spoke; "but, if this be true, why does not the captain apprise us? No, +you are quizzing me again, and very cruelly this time, very +unwarrantably." + +Yet I did not think exactly as I spoke, strive as I might to believe the +man in jest. Too much solemnity and sorrow both were discernible in his +worn and rugged features, hewn grandly as if from granite, to admit of a +hope like this. His words were earnest, and some great calamity was in +store, I could not doubt, or at least he apprehended such. For some time +he replied not, then, slowing pointing to the base of the stricken +mainmast, which still showed an elevation of some inches above the deck, +he revealed to me the truth without a word. + +As my eyes followed his guiding finger, I saw, with terror unspeakable, +a thin blue wavering smoke-wreath, float upward from the floor, and, +after curling feebly about the truncated mast, disappear in the clear +sunlit atmosphere, again to arise from the same point, that of the +juncture of the mast and deck, creeping through some invisible crevice, +as it seemed to form itself eternally in filmy folds, and successively +elude the eye as soon as it shaped to sight. I understood him then. +There was fire in the heart of the ship, and I knew the hold was filled +with cotton; it was smouldering slowly, and our safety was a question of +time alone! + +Pale, transfixed, frozen, I lifted my eyes to the man, who seemed to +represent my fate for the moment. "Was it the lightning?" I asked, after +a pause, during which his pitying eye rested on me drearily. "Did the +fire occur in that way?" + +"Yes, the lightning it was; and God's hand, which sent the shaft direct, +alone can deliver us." + +I seemed to hear the voice of Bertie speak these words. Things grew +confused; I wavered as I stood, lifted my hand to my head; the face of +Christian Garth grew large and dim, then faded utterly. I knew no more +until I found myself seated on a coil of rope, leaning against the +bulwark, while a young girl stood beside me, fanning and bathing my +face, and offering me a glass of water. + +"You are better now," she said, kindly; "the man at the wheel called me +as I was passing, and pointed out your condition, and I led you here, +and ran for water. Being up so early is apt to disagree with some +people." + +"What are these people crawling about the deck for? Is all hope over, or +was it only a dream?" I asked. + +"Oh, you are quite wild yet from your swoon; it is only the calkers +stopping up the seams, one of the captain's queer whims they say; but +how they are to dance to-night, those _magnificos_ I mean, without +ruining their slippers with this pitch, I cannot see! Thank Goodness! I +belong to a church, and am not of this party, and don't care on my own +account, nor does the captain, I believe. I was placed under his care at +Savannah, and I suppose it is only to stop the ball that--" + +She was interrupted by the approach of the officer under discussion, but +he passed us gloomily and went on to inspect the workmen so unseasonably +employed, as it seemed, in a labor that, save in a case of long voyages, +is always performed in port. + +His melancholy air, and the preoccupation of his manner, confirmed my +worst fears. + +Again I sought the Ixion of the vessel, who calmly and stolidly +performed his duty as if, indeed, Fate directed, without a change of +feature now, or expression. + +"Has the captain no hope of rescue, Mr. Garth?" + +"Oh, yes; he thinks we shall meet a ship or two between now and noon--we +'most always do, you know"--rolling his quid slowly, and hesitating for +a while; "keep heart, keep heart! I had thought from your face you were +stronger; besides, the pumps are doing good work in the hold: who knows +what may come of it, who knows?" + +Alas! alas! I could not rise to the level of this dim hope. "Think of +the burning crowd, the sheet of flame, the terrible destruction!" I +murmured; "I must go now and apprise those poor wretches below that +their time is short; they have a right to know." + +His vice-like hand was on my arm. "You do not go a step on such an +errand," he muttered. "It is the captain's business; he will 'tend to it +when the time comes, for he is a true man, and the bravest sailor on the +line. He means to do what's right, never fear. It is my dooty to hold +you here until he comes, onless you promise me to be discreet." + +"I shall be discreet, never fear--" and his grasp relaxed. I sped me +back to the coil of rope on which I had left my young companion, +intending to partake with her there my biscuit and orange, so needed now +for strength. + +I found in her stead (for she had departed in the interval) a +delicate-looking young woman, plain and poor, a widow evidently from the +style of her shabby mourning and sad expression of face, bearing in her +arms a weird and sickly-looking child, evidently a sufferer from spinal +disease--an infant as to size, but preternaturally old in countenance. + +The steady gaze of its large and serious eyes affected me +magnetically--eyes that seemed ever seeking something that still eluded +them, and which now appeared to inquire into my very soul. + +"Is your little boy ill, madam?" I asked at last; and at the sound of my +voice a smile broke over his small, sallow features, lending them +strange beauty, but dying away instantly again into an expression of +startled suspicion. + +"Yes, very ill," she answered, clasping him tenderly as he clung to her +suddenly. "He has some settled trouble that no medicine reaches, and you +see how small and light he is. Many a twelve months' babe is heavier +than he, yet he is three years old come March next, and he is 'cute +beyond his years, it seems to me." + +"You seem very weak and weary," I rejoined. "I noticed you yesterday +with interest, sitting all the time with your boy on your knee. You must +need exercise and rest. Go and walk now a little, while you can;" and I +stretched my arms for her baby. + +To her surprise, evidently, he came to me willingly--attracted, no +doubt, by the gleam of the watch-chain about my neck, and still further +propitiated by a portion of my orange, which he greedily devoured. + +In the mean time the poor, pale mother took a few turns on the +quarter-deck, and, disappearing therefrom a moment, returned with a +small supply of cakes and biscuits which she had sought in the steward's +room. + +An inspiration of Providence, no doubt, she thought this proceeding +later, which at the moment was only intended to anticipate the delay +attendant on all second-class meals. + +These cakes, with a pains-taking diligence, if not forethought--peculiar +to all feeble animals, squirrels, sick children, and the like--did he +one by one cram and compel into my pocket, unconscious as I was at the +moment of his miser-like proceeding (instinctive, probably), which later +I detected, to his infinite rejoicing. In company with my slender purse, +and bunch of useless keys, a pencil, and a small memorandum-book, they +remained _perdu_ until that moment of accidental discovery arrived which +was to test their value and place it "far above that of rubies." + +Light as a pithless nut seemed this little creature in my strong, +energetic arms, and yet his mother staggered beneath his weight. + +She insisted, however, after a time, on resuming her charge of him, as +it was proper she should do, and then sat beside me, delivering herself +of a long string of complaints and grievances, after the fashion of all +second-rate, solitary people when secure of sympathy. + +She overrated my benevolence on this occasion, however. I was lost in +painful reverie, and scarcely understood a word of her communication, +which I was obliged at last to cut short, for I had resolved, now that +my strength was recruited, on the only visible course remaining to me--I +would seek Miss Lamarque, confide to her the statement of Christian +Garth, relate to her what my eyes had seen, and be guided by her +determination and judgment, with those of her brother, a man of sense, I +saw, and whose instincts, no doubt, would all be sharpened by the +jeopardy of his children. + +She was sitting up in her state-room when I knocked at the door, still +in her berth, the lower one--from which the upper shelf had been lifted +so as to afford her room and air--looking very Oriental and handsomer +than I ever had seen her, in her bright Madras night-turban and fine +white cambric wrapper richly trimmed. + +Her face broke into smiles as soon as she beheld me; and she invited me, +in a way not to be resisted, so resolute and yet so kindly was it, to +partake with her of the hot coffee her maid was just handing her in bed, +in a small gilded cup, a portion of the service on the stand beside her. + +"It is our Southern custom, you know, Miss Harz--always our _cafe noir_ +before breakfast, as a safeguard against malaria. To be sure, there is +nothing of that sort to be apprehended at sea, but still habits are +inveterate; second nature, as the moralists and copy-books say, as if +there ever could be more than one. What nonsense these wiseacres talk, +to be sure! But there is cream, you see, for those who like it--boiled +down and bottled for the use of the children before leaving home--one of +Dominica's notions;" and here the smiling maid, with her little, +respectful courtesy, tendered me a reviving cup of Miss Lamarque's +morning beverage, Mocha, made to the last point of perfection, dripped +and filtered over a spirit-lamp by Dominica, the skillful and +neat-handed. + +"But you are very pale to-day, my child--what on earth can be the +matter?--There, Dominica, I thought I heard Florry cry! Go and help +Caliste get the children ready for a trot upon deck before breakfast, +and don't forget to give each one a gill of cream and a biscuit--or, +stay, twice as much for the two elder before they go up. It may be some +time before they get their regular morning meal.--They have to wait, you +know, Miss Harz, which is such rank injustice where children are +concerned. Patience never belongs to unreasoning creatures, unless an +instinct, as with animals; men have to learn its lessons through the +teachings of experience--that strictest of school-masters. Now, you see, +I have my lecturing-cap on, and am almost equal to you or Dr. Lardner +in my way. But it takes you to define fascination! I suppose Mrs. +Heavyside, however, could help you there--for nothing short of +witchcraft could account to me for her elopement with that dreary man! +To leave her sweet children, too, as if all the men on earth could be +worth to a true mother her teething baby's little toe or finger!" + +"Would she never stop--never give one loop-hole for doubt to enter?" I +thought. + +"But what in the world ails you--has Dunmore, the disconsolate, been +making love again? Has Captain Falconer declared himself too soon? and +do you hesitate, on account of Miss Moore? Don't let that consideration +influence you, I beg, for she is the greatest flirt in Savannah, the +truest to the vocation, and I like her for that, anyhow. Whatever a man +or woman has to do, let him or her do earnestly. That isn't exactly +Scripture, but near enough, don't you think so?" and she laughed +merrily. + +"I have been on deck this morning," I commenced, "Miss Lamarque, and saw +Christian Garth, and--" + +"He has been terrifying and electrifying you again with his tale of +horrors--there, it is all out. Why, he is as sensational as 'Jane Eyre,' +this new English novel I am just reading," drawing it from under her +pillow and holding it aloft as she spoke. "Currer Bell is not more +mysteriously awful, but Garth is not artistic. I detected his intention +by the inconsistency of his expression of face, which bore no part in +his narrative, and at once exposed him, you must remember--" + +"Oh, yes--but this time--" + +"Nonsense, Miriam Harz! the iceberg is gone, I know. Why, what a nervous +coward you are, to be sure, with all that assumed bravery! I am twice +as courageous, I do believe, despite appearances; I really begin to be +of opinion that it is safer to be at sea than on land--now what do you +think of that for a heterodoxy?--A second cup? why, of course, and a +third, if you want it; I am delighted you like it. These little Sevres +toys are but thimbles, but I always carry them about with me by sea and +land, and have for years; I feel as if there were luck in them, not one +of the original three has been broken--there--there!--just as I was +boasting, too!--never mind, such accidents _will_ occur; but your pretty +pongee dress is sadly stained with the coffee; besides, as _you_ dropped +the cup, it is _your_ luck, not mine; and I want an odd saucer, anyhow, +to feed Desiree out of; she sleeps in that willow basket you see in the +corner of the state-room, Miss Harz, and is lazy, like her mistress, of +mornings.--Desiree! Desiree! peep out, can't you, now you have your +long-desired Sevres saucer to lap milk from?--She won't touch delft, +Miss Harz. She is the most fastidious little creature!" + +"Alas! alas!" and I groaned aloud. + +"Not taking on about that silly cup, I hope--no; what can it be then, a +megrim? No. Well, I can't imagine any thing worse, to save my life. +Here, let me read you this, it is fine--it is where Jane Eyre feels +herself deserted, and this comparison about 'the dried-up channel of a +river' thrills one. Just hear it;" and she was about commencing-- + +"Not now--not now, Miss Lamarque; stern realities demand our attention. +Lay your book aside, be calm, be firm, but listen to me seriously. +Christian Garth informs me, nor he alone--my own eyes have done the +rest--that the cotton in the hold has taken fire from the lightning +yesterday; has been slowly smouldering ever since the mast was +struck--and that the ship's hours are numbered!" + +"O God! O God!" and she bowed her head upon her clasped and quivering +hands. "But, Captain Ambrose--he did not tell you so?" looking up +suddenly. "Christian Garth, indeed! his impudence is surprising--another +hoax, I suppose," and she tried to smile; "such a coarse creature, too!" + +"We shall see, but for the present say nothing; only get up and dress as +quickly as you can, but it is important to be very quiet, for fear of +causing confusion. I have promised discretion." + +"Call Dominica, then, for me, Miss Harz," gasping and stretching forth +her arms. "I can do nothing for myself--nothing--I am so weak, so +helpless. Yet I must believe he is--you are mistaken!" + +"I trust it may prove so. But let me assist you; Dominica is best +employed making ready the little ones and giving them +food--strengthening them for the struggle. She will be nerveless if she +knows the truth, and you are not in a condition to conceal it." + +"Just as you will, then. My trunk--will you be so kind as to unlock it +and give me out the tray--that picture? After that I can get along +alone." + +I silently did as she desired, and saw her place a covered miniature +about her neck before she arose. Very few minutes sufficed this morning +for her toilet--usually a tedious and fastidious one--her dress, her +bonnet, her shawl, were hastily thrown on, her watch secured with the +few jewels lying upon the night-table; the rest of her valuables were +with other boxes in the hold, the repository of all unneeded baggage, +and these, of course, she could scarcely hope to save in case of fire, +even if lives were rescued. + +Then, together, we went out, just in time to join the little troop of +young children and nurses on their way to the deck. Miss Lamarque did +not reply to their tumultuous greeting, but, silently taking the baby +Florry, her namesake, in her arms, kissed her many times. I had told her +while, she was dressing, of the smoke-wreaths about the base of the +broken mast, and she believed in the testimony my eyes had afforded me +far more than in the reports of Christian Garth. We did not encounter +Mr. Lamarque when we first went on deck; he had gone forward to smoke, +some one said; but Captain Ambrose was standing alone, telescope in +hand, and to him we addressed ourselves, quietly. + +He seemed startled when I disclosed the result of my observation--for I +did not choose to commit the pilot--but he did not attempt to deny the +truth of the condition of things, and conjured us both to entire quiet +and composure, and, if possible, to absolute silence. The safety of five +hundred people, he said, depended on our discretion; the ship might not +ignite for days, if at all, he thought, so carefully had the air been +excluded from the cotton by the process of tight calking, so as to seal +it almost hermetically; indeed, the fire might be wholly extinguished by +the pumps, which were constantly at work, pouring streams of water +around and through the hold; and a panic would be equal to a fire in any +case. Such were his calmness and apparent faith in his own words, that +they did much to allay Miss Lamarque's fears. My own were little +soothed--I never doubted from the beginning what the end would be. + +Mr. Lamarque approached us while the conference with the captain was +going on, and, under the seal of secrecy, the condition of affairs was +communicated to that gentleman. + +I never saw a man so crushed and calm at the same time. His handsome +face seemed turned to stone--he scarcely spoke at all, and made no +inquiries. I think his mind, like mine, was made up to the worst. Yet he +commanded himself so far as to go to the breakfast-table and superintend +the meal of his little children, about whom he hung, like a mother-bird +who sees the shadow of a hawk above her brood, from that moment until +the _denoument_ of the drama separated us two forever. + +Miss Lamarque and I sat down together on a bench, while the host of +hungry passengers crowded down to the cabin at the welcome summons of +the bell, and I was aware again of the pale widow and her patient child +standing near me. + +A sudden thought occurred to me. This woman, more than any one among us, +needed the strengthening stimulus of good food, and this meal might be +her last on shipboard--on earth, perhaps--for a dull, low, ominous sound +began to make itself heard to my ear as soon as the murmur of the crowd +subsided. + +"Trust me with your child again while you go down and eat your breakfast +in my place to-day. It is a whim of mine. I have had coffee with this +lady in her state-room, and shall not appear at the table. You may bring +me a slice of bread, if you choose, when you come back, and one for +baby. Do not refuse me this favor." + +Much pleased at my attention, as I could see, she went to the grand +first table, with its high-heaped salvers of snowy rolls and biscuit, +its delicate birds and fowls, its fragrant coffee and tea, so different +from the dregs of the humble board at which her second-class ticket +alone entitled her to appear; and, to save her from possible +humiliation, I wrote a line to the steward; so she feasted, no doubt, in +state. + +Again I enacted the _role_ of self-appointed nurse to a creature that +looked more like a fairy changeling than a flesh-and-blood creation. + +"You are a strange woman, Miriam Harz! At such an hour as this, what +matters the quality of food?" said Miss Lamarque, sententiously. "After +all, what can that invalid and her child be to you in any case? They are +essentially common and mean. You never saw them before, and may never +see them again." + +"In view of such a catastrophe as that before us, all distinctions fade, +Miss Lamarque. This is the last meal any one will take on the ship +Kosciusko--she is doomed! The woman might as well get strength for the +chance of saving herself and child. I doubt whether any second table +will be spread to-day!" I spoke with anguish. + +"You cannot believe this! Why, after what the captain said, days may go +by before any real danger manifests itself! Ships must pass in the +interval--many ships may pass to-day, within a few hours, ready for our +relief, if needed; and see, the smoke has ceased to curl about your +broken main-mast! That shows convincingly that the fire is being gotten +under--extinguished, probably." + +"Oh, no! no! no! not with that low, terrible roaring in the hold. The +fire is gaining strength, and our agony will soon he over." + +I sat with, clasped hands and bowed head before her, insensible to her +words. I suppose she strove to strengthen me. I think she tried to +soothe. Failing in both, she rose and went away, and in her place came +Christian Garth, relieved from the helm, and stood a moment beside me. + +"Don't be down-hearted, young gal, an' wait for me. Ef the Lord lets me, +I will save you, and the old lady, too; that is, ef she is your aunt or +mother or near of kin." + +I shook my head drearily. + +"You have no hope, then, Mr. Garth?" + +"Hope? yes; the best of hope--the Christian's hope. God can do any thing +He pleases, we all know, and He may stretch forth his hand when all +seems dark; but Captain Ambrose is not one to run a risk of that sort, +so he has sent me to work upon a raft--one of two he is making for the +seamen if the wust comes to the wust. But you see, I have been on lost +ships afore now, an' I know there is no larboard nor starboard rules +when men are skeered. So I shall make my raft to hold the womenfolk, for +the boats will be for the sailors--mark my word--and them that's wise +will wait till the press is over and take the rafts." + +"There are little children," I said; "six of them belonging to that lady +and Mr. Lamarque. Don't forget them, Mr. Garth, and the poor little +widow coming now to claim her baby; this miserable little creature I am +holding until she breakfasts. Don't lose sight of these, either, in the +crowd, if, indeed, we are obliged to have recourse to your raft." + +"Pray rayther that it may float us all to safety," he said, sternly, +"for your best chance of being saved will be on that raft, if matters go +as I think they will. Trust me, for I will come;" and he passed away +just before the little widow came to my side again. + +"I came up as soon as I could, to relieve you. I know how cross baby is +when he gets restless, and I was afraid you might tire of him. See! I +have brought his bread, and this waiter of tea and toast for you; now +you must take a mouthful." + +She knew nothing of our danger, it was plain. "Did you leave the other +passengers at table?" I asked; "the captain, was he there?" + +The question was never answered, for the attention of my interlocutor +was riveted now, as was my own, on the companion-way, from which a wild +and frightened-looking crowd was densely emerging, with a confused hum +of voices that announced their recognition of their impending danger. +The change of age, of pain, of woe, seemed sealed upon each aspect, as +one by one, and phantom-like, in rapid succession, those who had so +lately gone down to feast returned to the upper day, like grim ghosts +coming from a church-yard carnival. + +It was a sight to stir the stoutest spirit. + +At the close of the repast, the captain had announced the truth, to his +passengers, and followed them now to enjoin them to firmness and +efficiency, both so greatly needed at this crisis. + +Mounted on the capstan, he addressed them briefly, and not without +influence. Such was the power of his simple and manly bearing over these +distracted souls, that even the wildest listened with decorum. + +This was no immigrant-ship, loaded with stolid or desperate men, +insensible of high teachings, and alone desirous of personal safety. Yet +the universal instinct asserted itself, and for the time courtesies were +set aside, and family affections were all that were regarded. + +Miss Lamarque, pale, yet collected, now stood surrounded by the children +of her brother, leaning upon his arm while the captain spoke. Husbands +and wives were together, sisters and brothers, servants and their +masters--each group revealed its several household affinities. We only +were alone--the dreary little widow, whose name I never knew, and Miriam +Monfort; and on natural principles we clung together. + +It is true that Miss Lamarque, by many signs, implored me to come to +her, but I would not. It was like intruding on a bed of death, I felt, +to break through ties of blood at such a time, by thrusting a foreign +presence amid devoted relatives; and I was too proud, or perhaps too +selfish, to intrude where I must be secondary, unless I took away +another's rights. + +The captain had promised, in his brief address, to protect his +passengers to the utmost of his power--leaving the result with God. He +had entreated them to be calm, and to preserve order--so essential to +safety; had mentioned his confidence that a ship must pass before the +catastrophe could possibly occur; but added that, to prepare for the +worst, he had ordered the construction of two rafts--one for the use of +the seamen, the other for the reception of food and necessaries. + +His plan was to attach these to the larger boats, and so provide against +want; in the certainty, however, that on such a route relief must soon +present itself, in the shape of ship or steamer. + +He called on all able to abet his exertions to present themselves +forthwith, so that universal safety might be insured; not only by making +the rafts, but the securing of food upon them, and comforts for the +women and children, who represented so large a portion of the +passengers. He answered for the fidelity of his seamen with his life. +There was not one among them, he knew, who would lift a finger to +disobey him. He said these words in conclusion: + +"And now, if there is any one present sufficiently imbued with the grace +of God to fix the anxious minds of these voyagers in prayer, such at +least of them as are powerless otherwise to aid our exertions, let him +appear and minister to their tribulation. This task is not for me, +although the holiest. My duties call me elsewhere." + +So adjured, a man, whose wild, fanatical appearance had given rise to +the rumor that the famous "Lorenzo Dow" was on board, sprang on a +bulkhead, and commenced to exhort the crowd about him, from which a file +of pale, determined-looking men was slowly emerging to join the seamen +at the other end of the vessel in their efforts for the public weal. But +many lingered, either overcome and paralyzed by the stringency of +circumstances, or unequal to exertions from personal causes--aged men, +women, and children, chiefly--and to these the frenzied speaker +continued to address his words of exhortation and warning. + +Such a tirade of terrible objurgation I felt was entirely out of place +in a scene like this, and calculated to excite the worst passions of the +human mind, instead of persuading it to serenity and submission, so +essential now; for to me the captain's last words represented the final +grace of the preacher, when, with closed eyes and outspread hands, he +dismissed his flock from the temple at the close of the services. From +that vessel and all that concerned it we were virtually enfranchised +from that moment--dismissed to destruction, so to speak, by fire or +flood, or rescue from beyond, as the case might be, to life or death, as +God willed--for the ship's mission was accomplished. + +I shrank as far as possible from the wild, waving arms, the frenzied +eyes, the gaunt and wolfish aspect, the piercing, agonized voice of the +fanatic, who had assumed to himself the solemn office of soul-comforter +in a time of extremity. I saw from a distance his long, lank figure +writhing like a sapling in a storm, as it overtopped the crowd; but his +words were lost on my ear, and I sat leaning back against the bulwark +with folded hands, absorbed in my own thoughts, when a young girl, +bursting from the throng, came and threw herself down before me, and +buried her face in my lap, convulsed with sobs. When she looked up, I +recognized the young person who had bathed my face in the morning during +my partial swoon--a fair and lovely-looking girl of about eighteen +years, pallid and ill now with excitement. + +"Oh, it is so terrible!" she cried; "I cannot--cannot bear it, and he +says we are all hopelessly lost unless we have repented; that there is +no death-bed salvation; and this is our death-bed, you know, for the +Spanish ship passed us without stopping, and we scarcely hope to see +another. O cruel, cruel fiends! to pretend they did not understand our +signals, and leave us to destruction." + +And she clasped her hands in mute and bitter despair--no actress was +ever so impressive. + +"We must make up our minds to the worst," I said, as calmly as I could. +"Then, if God sees fit to deliver us, we shall be all the more thankful. +You must not believe what this ignorant and panic-stricken man tells +you. Think of the thief on the cross whom Christ pardoned in dying." + +"Then you hope to be permitted to see God! You dare to hope this?" she +asked, gazing into my very eyes, so closely did she come to me. + +"Oh, surely in his own good time! I have done nothing so very wicked, I +hope, as to exclude me from my Father's face forever--have you? Now, +don't be frightened; speak calmly." + +"I don't know--I don't know. I should be afraid not to call myself +desperately wicked at such a time; he says we all are, you know. We are +all miserable sinners." + +"It is very abject to talk and feel thus, and I don't believe that God +approves of it," I said, indignantly. "He gives us self-respect, and +commands us to cherish it. Such abasement is unworthy of Christian +souls. It is very bitter to die, as young as we are; but, if we have +done our best to serve Him, we need--we ought not to be afraid to meet +our God." + +She clung to my outstretched hand. She strengthened my spirit by the +fullness of her need. The feeble widow with her child, too, crept close +to me, weeping and trembling. + +"Do not leave me," she entreated; "let us stay together to the very +last." + +"Nay, that may be a long time," I answered, smiling feebly, and nerved +for the first time to encouragement; "for the captain will do his best +to save his passengers--the women especially, I cannot doubt; and see +what bounteous provision he is making for their support!" + +And I pointed to the piles of flour and sugar barrels, the boxes of +crackers and of hams, of figs and raisins, the hampers of wine and ale, +which were profusely piled on the quarter-deck ready for lowering to the +rafts. + +"He means to take care of us, you see, by the permission of Providence," +I said, almost strengthened by this dependence, "and we will remain +calmly together, and drink whatever cup God offers us--humbly, I hope." +Yet, even as I spoke, my heart rebelled against the fiat of my fate, and +the young life within me rose up in fierce conflict with its doom. + +At this moment of bitter strife of heart, Mr. Dunmore, the youthful poet +of whom I have already spoken, stood before me. + +"I have found you at last," he said, "deputed as I am to do so by Miss +Lamarque. It is a point of honor with her to care for you personally in +this crisis. You know Major Favraud placed you under her care; besides +that, her regard for you impels this request. She bids me say--" + +I interrupted him hastily. + +"This is no time for ceremonials, truly, Mr. Dunmore; yet, had family +concurrence been perfect, it seems to me that her brother might have +undertaken this mission. I have no wish to thrust myself undesired into +any household circle at such a crisis." + +"He is wholly absorbed with his children." + +"As he ought to be, Mr. Dunmore, and, when the time of peril comes, it +is of their needs alone that he will and must think, I am alone in this +vessel, as I shall remain. I did not leave Savannah under Miss +Lamarque's care. She is very generous, very considerate, but I will not +embarrass her motions, nor yours, nor any one's. It is the duty of +Captain Ambrose to see to the welfare of his female passengers. I shall +not be forgotten among these--" + +He stood before me with his knightly head uncovered, his handsome face +as calm as though he were a guest at a festival instead of a patient and +interested watcher at a funeral-pyre. His birth, his breeding, his +genius even, asserted themselves in that mortal hour. He was calm, +collected, serious, but not afraid. + +"The peril will be great to all, of course," he said, quietly, "but no +gentleman will prefer his own safety to that of the most humble and +desolate woman on the ship. To you, Miss Harz, I devote my energies +to-day, to you and these ladies of your party, whoever they may be--," +bowing gently as he spoke. "I may fail in delivering you from danger, +but it shall not be for want of effort on my part. Believe my words, I +have less care for life than most people, and now let me offer you my +escort through that maddened crowd (the rest may follow closely), to +reach Miss Lamarque." + +"No, Mr. Dunmore, I _must_ remain just where I am, I have promised +myself to do so; this is much; and these unhappy women--they, like +myself, are alone, or seem to be. Should you see fit to do so, and be +willing to be so encumbered, you can return after a lapse of time; but +make no point of this, I entreat you. I think that Captain Ambrose will +observe good order and save his helpless ones first. You know he +promised this--" + +There was a moment's pause, and movement of eye and hand, and then he +spoke again, very softly: + +"Yes, and much more that can never be fulfilled, for already the cabin +is in flames, the companion-way is closed, and the fire in the hold is +making fearful headway. I have heard the seamen have sworn to secure the +boats; you are strong and resolute--be prepared for the very worst." +Then, speaking in his usual tone, he added: "Since the banner of Spain +passed near enough to show us the rampant lions and castles on its +crimson shield, and yet made no sign, I have had little hope of rescue +from a ship. It was ominous!" + +"Not intended, then," I said, eagerly. "Oh, I am glad of this, at least, +for the honor of human nature." + +"A strange consideration at such a time! You are a study to me, Miss +Harz; yours is not apathy, like mine, but true courage, even in this +death-struggle, and I will save you if I can, for you have a noble +soul!" + +All further dialogue was cut short by the wild shout that rose from the +crowd, the delusive cry of "A sail, a sail!" and Dunmore rushed with the +rest to descry its myth-like form, if possible. It was some moments +before hope again died down to a flat level of despair. + +Too remote for signal or trumpet was that distant, white-winged vessel +gliding securely on its path of peace, unconscious of the extremity of +the mighty steamer it distinguished dimly, no doubt, by the aid of +telescopes. + +However this might have been, for the second time on that day of direst +exigency, a ship went by, observed yet unobserving. + +Fainter and fainter grew the accents of the fierce, fanatical preacher; +his excitement forsook him as the danger became more and more imminent. + +The crowd broke into groups. Pale, stern men, with rigid features, who +had been employed aiding in the construction of the rafts, returned now +to the sides of their wives and children. + +Through a vista on the deck I discerned Miss Lamarque, sitting quietly +with her youngest nursling in her arms, beside her brother. His children +and slaves were gathered around her knees. Dunmore was giving her my +message, I could not doubt, from the glances she cast in my direction, +as he stood near by. I knew that he would soon turn to come again, but +my resolution was fixed. + +Captain Ambrose, with a face grown old in half a day, gray, abstracted, +wretched, passed and repassed me several times, telescope in hand. + +Ralph Maxwell on the round-house kept constant watch, his attitude +dauntless, his face uplifted and keen, field-glass in hand. His +West-Point training stood him in good stead now. Captain Falconer, a +naval officer, had returned to the side of Miss Oscanyan, the woman he +had loved hopelessly for years, and, before the scene closed between us +forever, I saw him clasp her to his bosom; so that trying hour had for +some high spirits is crowning consolations, its solace and reward, and, +whatever else was in store, the martyrdom of love was over. + +An eager hand caught my shawl. "He is coming back, coming to persuade +you to leave us," said the young girl; "but you have promised not to +part from us, and I feel that God will remember us if we remain together +firm and fast, we three." + +Then the pale widow spoke in turn: "Let me stay beside you too," she +entreated; "it makes me feel stronger, I am so desolate--" and she bowed +her head and wept. + +I would have said in the strange, calm bitterness that possessed my +soul: "What value has life to you and your deformed one? Poor, widowed, +sickly, and despised, why should you wish to live? Why encumber me?" + +But thoughts like these were not for human utterance now, and we sat +together, hand locked in hand for a time, waiting for the end, as men +may wait in years to come, when the earth is gray with sin, for the +coming of the fiery comet that they know is destined to consume them. + +For was not this ship our world, penned in as we were on every side, and +separated from all else by an ocean inexorable and illimitable as space, +and were not we likewise looking forward to a fiery doom--our finite, +perhaps final, day of judgment? + +I could understand then, for the first time, how condemned criminals +feel--well, strong, yet dying! I knew how Walter La Vigne, the +self-doomed, had felt, and some passages of Madame Roland's appeal rose +visibly before me, as if written on the air rather than in my memory. I +had read the book at Beauseincourt, and it had powerfully impressed me; +and this, I remember, was the passage that swept across my brain: + +"And thou whom I dare not name, wouldst thou mourn to see me preceding +thee to a place where we can love one another without wrong--where +nothing will prevent our union--where all pernicious prejudices, all +arbitrary exclusions, all hateful passions, and all tyranny, are silent? +I shall wait for thee, then, and rest!" + +So centred were my dying thoughts on Wentworth--so calmly did I await +the great change that men call sudden death! + +All this time--a time much briefer than that I have taken in recounting +my sensations--the glorious summer's sun, the sun of morning, was +bathing the sea; the ship, with beauty, and a soft, fresh breeze, was +fanning every pallid brow with a caressing, silken wing, that seemed to +mock its wretchedness. + +I thought not once of Christian Garth. I had ceased to strain my eyes +for a distant sail, to seek to compromise with my fate or make +conditions with my Creator. Dunmore was forgotten. I was composed to +die--not resigned. These things are different; a bitter patience +possessed me that I felt would sustain me to the end, but I was not +satisfied that my doom was just or opportune. + +"Farewell, sweet, young, vigorous life!" I moaned aloud. "Farewell, +Miriam! It will not be thou, but a phantom, that shall arise from dead +ashes! Farewell, dear hand, that hast served me long and well!" and I +kissed my own right hand. I had not known until that moment how truly I +loved myself. "Sister, lover, farewell! Mother, father, receive me! +Gentle Constance, reach forth thy guiding hand and lead me to my +parents! Wentworth, remember me! Saviour, my soul is thine!" + +I bowed my head. I had no more to say. Unwilling I was to die--afraid I +was not; for, as I sat there, my whole life swept before me, as it is +said to do before the eyes of the drowning, and rapidly as one may sweep +the gamut on a piano with one introverted finger, and I saw myself as +though I had been another. I had done nothing to make me afraid to meet +my God; so, with closed eyes, I lingered in the shadow, conscious of +nothing save exceeding calm, when the grasp of my gentle friend of the +moment aroused me to a sense of what was occurring, and I saw, with +horror indescribable, the fierce flames leaping from the deck, heard the +hoarse shouts, beheld the lurid surging of an agonized and despairing +multitude! But above all rang the clear, trumpet-tones of Captain +Ambrose, soon to sink in death: + +"To the boats--to the boats! but save the women first--the children--as +ye are Christian men! So help ye, mighty God!" + +I heard later how signally this noble charge was disregarded; how +utterly self triumphed over generosity and duty; and how, in enforcing +the example all should have followed, Captain Ambrose lost his valiant, +valuable life. But this was thought nothing of then, and I sat patiently +down to perish! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +It was sunset when I first felt able to sit up beneath the awning of +sails which provident hands had stretched above the central platform +reserved for the occupancy of the women and children, spread thick with +mattresses on the raft, and look about me understandingly. + +We were riding smoothly over the long, low, level billows of that summer +sea, sustained beyond their reach on what seemed a rude barn-floor, +composed as this was of the masts, booms, and yards, roughly lashed +together by tarred ropes, no longer needed on the destined ship, and +which had been assigned by the captain for that purpose to Christian +Garth. + +A mast was erected in the front of this hastily-constructed raft, on +three sides of which were breastworks, with strong, loose ropes +attached, so that those who clung to this refuge might support +themselves with comparative safety, or rather have a chance for life, +when our "floating grave" should hang suspended perpendicularly on the +steep side of a mountain-billow, or drift beneath it. + +Just below, and surrounding the small, elevated platform on which I +found myself when I revived, stretched on a slender mattress by the side +of my feeble widow and her moaning child, were rows of barrels, firmly +fastened by cleats, so as insure, to some degree, not only the +preservation of our food and water, but to form a sort of bulwark of +protection for those who occupied the central portion of the raft. + +The young girl, of whom I have spoken as having attached herself to me +during the last moments of my stay on shipboard, and an old negro woman, +whose crooning hymns made a strange accompaniment to the dashing waters, +and whose stolid tranquillity seemed to reproach my anguish, were our +only companions on the sort of dais assigned to his female passengers by +Christian Garth. + +The man himself, to whom we owed our deliverance, stood near his +primitive mast, trimming his sail carefully, and looking out with his +far-reaching, sagacious ken over the waste of waters, into which the +blood-red, full-orbed sun seemed dipping, suddenly, as for his +night-bath. + +A few of the common passengers of the Kosciusko, and a knot of the +seamen, comprising not more than twenty souls, composed the groups, +scattered about the roughly yet securely lashed raft, silent and +observant all, as men who face their doom are apt to be. + +I looked in vain for one familiar face, and for a moment regretted that +I had been withheld, as by some spell, for whose weird influence I could +never sufficiently account, from having cast my destiny with theirs, who +were so much nearer to me in station and congeniality of spirit than +those around me. With Miss Lamarque's hand locked in mine, I should have +vied with her, I felt, in cheerful courage; and the knightly calmness of +Dunmore might have sustained my drooping, fainting soul. These were my +peers, and, _with_ them, I should have been better content to be tried. + +But the white squall, which had in no way affected us (so small and +partial was the sphere of its influence), had sufficed to separate ours +irretrievably from our companion-raft, and the squadron of boats that +had promised not to forsake as. And now the eye of agony was strained in +vain over the weltering waste, for a vestige of those refugees from the +Kosciusko--buried, perhaps, a thousand fathoms deep, by their sudden +visitors, beneath the waves of that deadly Atlantic sea. + +Tears rained over my face as I thought of this probability, and, +hopeless as I was of rescue, the almost certain fate of my +companion-voyagers fell over me like a pall. "Better, perhaps--far +better had it been"--I thought so then--"had we all perished together in +that terrific sheet of flame that rose up like a dividing barrier +between us at the last. Fit emblem of the final day of doom. Our trials +were but begun. What more remained? God in heaven only knew!" + +And rapidly, and in panoramic succession, all the fearful adventures of +raft and boat that I had ever read of, or heard related, passed across +my mind, ending with that latest, and perhaps the most fearful of +all--the wreck of the Medusa! + +The night came down serene and beautiful. As the sun disappeared in +ocean, up rose the full-orbed moon--crimson and magnified by surrounding +vapors--that to the practised eye portended future tempest, calm as the +ocean and the heavens then seemed. + +The constellations, singularly distinct and splendid, had the power to +fix and fascinate my vision--never felt before--as they shone above me, +clear and crystalline as enthroned in space--judges, and spectators, +cold and pitiless as it seemed to me, in the strangeness and forlornness +of my condition--Arcturus, and the Ursas, great and little, and Lyra, +and the Corona Borealis, Berenice, and Hydra, and Cassiopea's chair; +these and many more. I marked them all with a calm scrutiny that belongs +to terror in some phases. The stars seemed mocking eyes that +night--smiling and safe in heaven--the moon, a cold and cruel enemy with +her vapory train, so grandly sailing across the cloudless heaven--so +careless of our fate--the wreck of a ruined world as many deem +her--veiling in light her inward desolation. + +A faint and vapory comet lurked on the horizon--like a ghastly +messenger--scarcely discernible to the human eyes, yet vaguely ominous +and suggestive--a spirit-ship it might be--watching in silence to hear +away the souls of those lost at sea! + +There was deep stillness--unbroken, save by the lapping and plashing +waters. Even the crooning hymns of the old negro woman had died away; +and the moans of the suffering child, and the sobs of the weary mother, +and the eager exclamations of Ada Greene (for such I learned was the +name of my young companion), were, for a season, lost alike in sleep. + +Food had been distributed--prayer had been offered--all seemed favorable +so far to our preservation. We were on the track of voyage--the pathway +of ships--and the sea was tranquil as a summer lake; up to this point, +the arm of God had been extended over us almost visibly. Would He +forsake us now? I questioned thus, and yet I could not, dare not, hope +as others hoped! + +The morning came; I woke, aroused by Salva's song, from troubled sleep; +and, as I rose to a sitting posture, a troop of sea-birds that had been +swooping overhead, fled with a fiend-like screaming. + +The mother and child were already consuming their scant allowance of +food. Ada Greene was standing self-poised, swaying like a slender reed +with the motion of the raft, so as never to lose her balance, like a +young acrobat, with her folded arms, her floating hair, and fair Aurora +face, uplifted to the day. + +Over the raft were scattered groups of men taking their morning meal; +but, as before, the stalwart form of Christian Garth was at the helm, or +rather, mast and rudder merged in one, which he controlled with calm, +sagacious power. + +"Is there a ship in the distance, that you gaze so earnestly?" I asked +of the young girl as I put back my hair that had clustered thickly over +my face in my uneasy slumber, and followed eagerly the direction of her +eyes. + +"Oh! no; only a school of dolphins; but it is so pretty! Some came quite +near just now; the men were harpooning them; but if we had them we could +not cook them, you know, on this miserable contrivance." + +"One we should be very grateful for, Ada, since it is all that lies +between us and destruction!" I answered, sorrowfully, for the levity of +her spirit grieved and shocked me. + +"I don't know about that; I think we might as well have gone down at +once as stay here, and be roasted and starved. How hot it is to-day! +What would I not give for a good glass of ice-water! Don't look so +shocked; we shall be saved, of course. I am not the least afraid about +that, for Mr. Garth says we _must_ see a ship before evening. Don't you +mark the flag flying at the mast-head? He brought it on board on +purpose, so that they might not mistake our country (the packets, I +mean), and give us the go-by as that Spanish vessel did! But they do say +that was a pirate; and that, instead of sitting on a plank, we should +have been walking a plank by this time, had they rescued us. I'm rather +glad they didn't, though, after all--things couldn't be much worse than +they are, could they, now?--There, I came very near falling, I declare!" + +The moans of the sick woman at my side became almost constant toward +noon; and she was obliged to surrender her infant wholly to my charge, +for the haemorrhage of the day before had returned, and she was fast +drifting into unconsciousness. "Water, water!" was the only intelligible +cry that left her lips, and that we had to give was warm and brackish, +from the occasional lapping of the sea against the barrels, into which +it oozed insensibly. + +The sun shone down hot and brazen, from the lurid heavens, covered with +filmy clouds, so equally overspreading it that a thin, gray veil seemed +to interpose between us and its scorching rays, scarcely tempering them +by its diaphanous medium. + +Beneath it lay the sea, like a copper shield, smooth and glowing, +seething like a boiling caldron, with its level foam, for the long, +low-rolling billows lifted themselves but lazily from Ocean's breast, +and assumed no distinctness of form or motion. Not the faintest breeze +came to relieve the stifling closeness of the atmosphere, or lift the +collapsed sail, or furled flag, that clung around our mast. The air +shimmered visibly around us, as though undergoing some transformation +from the heat, some culinary process, through which it was to be +rendered unfit for human lips to breathe. Birds flew low and heavily +around the raft, as though their wings met such resistance as fish find +in water, alighting occasionally to pick up languidly morsels of +rejected food. + +Still the old negro's crooning hymns went on, recommenced with morning +light. To my sad heart, the refrain bore a mournful significance: + + "In the land of the New Jerusalem + There shall be no more sea." + +She sat, a wrinkled hag, with a leering, repulsive face, with her feet +planted firmly on her mattress, her knees elevated, her long, ape-like +arms closely embracing these--her fingers, strung with brass and silver +rings, intertwined with snake-like flexibility. + +On her head was the inevitable bright-colored handkerchief, the badge of +her race, or rather of her condition in those days, and she wore the +decent, blue-cotton frock, which marked her for a plantation-negro. +Large hoops were in her flat, enormous ears, that seemed to suspend her +shoulders as they touched them, drawn up and narrowed as these were, +even beyond their natural hideousness, by her attitude, one which she +maintained as stolidly as a dervish. + +"You must help us," I said, at last, when the crisis came, and affairs +waxed desperate. "You must take the child, at least, and care for him. +See, it requires two persons to sustain his dying mother--one to wet her +lips, one--" + +"'Deed, honey," she interrupted, coolly, "you must 'scuse me dis oncst; +I has jus' as much to do as I kin posomply 'complish, in keepin' of +myself dry, comfable, and singin' ob my hyme-toones. We has all to take +our chances dis time, an' do for our own selves, black and white; an' I +don't see none ob my own white folks on dis raf', wich I is mighty proud +of. Dar, now! I does b'leve dat is a ship sail way off dar. Does you see +it, honey?" + +And she pointed to a large white gull, skimming the main at some +distance. Disgusted with her selfishness, I vouchsafed her no farther +notice at the time, and her crooning went on during the whole period of +the bitter death-struggle of that poor sufferer, whose name I never +knew, but whose little, deformed waif, the orphan of the raft, remained +my heritage. + +"You will take care of him," she had said to me, in her last conscious +moments, "my baby-boy, my little--" the name died on her lips, and she +never spoke again. + +When she was dead, Christian Garth caused her to be wrapped in +sail-cloth, weighted with chains, and, with a brief prayer, consigned to +the deep. His superstitious sailor's fears rebelled against the idea of +keeping a corpse on board one moment longer than necessary, so the rites +of sepulture were speedily accomplished. + +When I remonstrated, feebly enough it is true, for exhaustion was +supervening on long-sustained effort, at his haste, which, even under +the circumstances, seemed to me indecent, he coolly spoke of it as a +measure essential to the good of all. + +Talismanic as were these words on such occasion, mine were the lips that +murmured the brief prayer, a portion of the solemn Episcopal +grave-service that I chanced to remember, above the poor, pale corpse, +even while my weary arms inclosed the struggling child, who, +understanding nothing of the truth, would fain have plunged after his +mother into depths unknown. + +A low, long roll of thunder smote on the ear, like a message to the +ocean, from the heavens above, as we saw the waters close greedily over +the form of our dead passenger. The men who had launched the body from +the raft looked up and listened fearfully, and Christian Garth hastened +to trim his sail. + +It was sunset now, and the clouds gathered so rapidly about the sun, +that he sank empalled in purple to his watery bed, leaving no trace +behind to mark his faded splendor. + +A sudden breeze sprang up, infinitely refreshing at first to soul and +sense, and again the thunder lumbered and crashed about us. The billows +heaved and leaped like steeds just freed from harness, tossing their +white manes; the raft shuddered and reeled with a deadly, sickly motion, +like a creature in strong throes, plunging with frantic suddenness into +the troughs of the waves at one moment, as if impelled by fear, then +rallying to their summits, only to cast itself wildly down again. + +All was confusion, dire and terrible. Then burst the storm upon +us--rain, wind! + +I was conscious of clutching, with one hand, a rope which strained and +swayed desperately, while with the other I grasped the affrighted baby +to my breast. + +Ada Greene and the old negro woman clung together, hanging to the same +cord of safety, flung to them, to all of us, by the hand of Christian +Garth. + +The barrels strained and groaned, and broke from their fastenings; the +awning was wrenched from its mooring, and swept away; the bitter brine +broke over us and choked our cries; the anguish of death was upon as +without its submission. We struggled instinctively to breathe, to live; +we grappled desperately with circumstances; we fought against our doom. + +Suddenly the sea dropped to rest--the storm was spent; a low, sighing, +soughing gale swept around our nucleus of despair, and the surging of +the sea was like a bitter funeral-wail. The air grew cold and chill; one +vast, pall-like cloud enveloped the whole face of the unpitying +heavens, that seemed literally "to press down upon our very faces like +a roof of black marble." + +No moon, no stars, were visible; we had no light of any kind, nor could +we ascertain the damage done until the cold, gray morning broke in gloom +and rain upon us. Then it was made plain to us that our food had all +been swept overboard--together with six seamen and five of the +passengers. There remained on the raft only three shuddering women and a +little child--and a handful of weary and discouraged men, sustained and +led to a sense of duty by the dauntless master-spirit of one alone--the +presence of Christian Garth, indomitable through, all hardships. So it +had fared with us for six-and-thirty hours of our experience on "our +floating grave." + +We had been washed from our little platform, which ordinarily lifted us +above the lapping of the sea during the prevalence of the storm--and we +regained it now, glad to repose even on the sea-soaked mattresses bereft +of awning. By the mercy of God some glutinous sea-zoophytes had been +tangled among them, and by the help of the brine-soaked biscuit in my +pocket (crammed there, it may be remembered, as a precious hoard for a +time of dire necessity, on the morning of the fire, by the small, +cunning fingers of the sickly child), we breakfasted, or rather broke +our fast--we four, the child, the negress, Ada Greene, and I--and life +was aroused again in every breast by means of a briny morsel. + +"A cup of coffee would not be amiss just now," said the girl, laughing, +"but the Lord knows we can wait." + +There was a strange, bright light in the eyes of the young girl as she +spoke these words, and she was arraying her hair coquettishly with some +bunches of sea-weed, which had been cast up by the storm, and from which +the eager, famishing lips of the little boy had been permitted to suck +the gluten before discarding the skeleton stems. + +That hair was in itself a grace and glory--rippling from crown to waist +in sheeny, golden splendor, fine as silk, and glossy as the yellow floss +threads of pale, ripe Indian-corn--beautiful, even in its dishevelled +and drenched condition, as an artist's dream. Devoid as it was of +regular beauty, the face beneath, with its clear blue eyes, red lips, +and pure complexion, the pink and white that reminds one of a sweet-pea +or ocean-shell, had struck me as very lovely from the first; nothing to +support this ground work of excellence had I discovered, however, either +in the form of the head, which was ignoble, or the expression of the +face, which was both timid and defiant, or the tones of the voice, which +were shrill and harsh by turns--yet, as my fellow-voyager and sufferer, +I was interested in this young creature, not forgetting, either, her +attention during my pending swoon, of which mention has been made. + +"I am going to the party, whatever the preacher may say, and whether +Captain Ambrose wills it or no. I am under his care and protection, you +see, to go to New York to my aunt, Madame Du Vert, the famous milliner, +and I am to learn her trade. Her name is Greene, so they call her Du +Vert, to make out that she is French--_vert_ is _green_, in French, you +see; or so they tell me. Now, Captain Ambrose is a church-member, too, +and he does not want dancing on his ship, and so he made the calkers +pitch the deck--that was to break up the ball, you know; but don't tell +any one this for the 'land's sake,'" drawing near to me and whispering +strangely, with her forefinger raised--"or all those proud Southern +people would pitch into me--pitch, you understand?" and she laughed +merrily--"their white satin slippers and all!" + +"You must not talk so, Ada;" and I took her hand, which was burning. + +"Why not? Who are you, to prevent me? I am as good as you any day--or +Miss Lamarque either, or any of those haughty ones--though my father was +a negro-trader. Well, whose business was that but God's? If He don't +care, who need care?--An't I right, old mammy?" appealing to the ancient +negress, who had suspended her croon to listen. + +"Yes, indeed--that you is, honey; right to upholden your own dad--nebber +min' what he did to serbe the debble. But you looks mighty strange, +chile, outen your eyes. Wat dat you sees ober dar--is it a ship, +gal?--or must we--" and her voice sank to a mutter--"must we fall back +on dis picaninny, to keep from starvation?--" + +I understood her dreadful suggestion even before the words fully left +her cannibal lips, exposing her yellow fangs; from the glance of her +cruel eye in the direction of the child, and the working of her long, +crooked talons, rather than fingers, writhed like knotted serpents; I +understood them with an instinct that made me clutch him closely to my +breast, and narrowly watch his enemy from that hour until the time when +my brain failed and my eyes closed in unconsciousness, and with the +determination to plunge with him into the sea rather than devote him to +such a fate or yield to such an alternative as this wretch in human form +had more than hinted--even should the animal instinct, underlying every +nature, presume to dictate to reason at the last! + +We could but die--that was the very worst that Fate had in store for +us--_but_ die in the body! How infinitely worse that the soul should +perish through the selfish sensuousness of cannibalism, which would +degrade life itself below dissolution, even if preserved by such means! + +"I am ready now to go to Captain Ambrose for assistance," said Ada +Greene, poising herself before me, and having surrendered or forgotten +her first idea, evidently, in the new mania of the moment. "Of course, +he does not intend to leave us here to perish, and he is in the next +cabin--but a step; see how easily I can get to him, and I shall be back +before you can say 'Presto!'" + +As nimbly as a sea-gull runs upon the sand, the young creature flew +across the now level raft toward the sea, but a strong hand clutched her +as she was about to step overboard, and compelled her back to her place +on the platform, where, bound with cords, she lay raving, until sleep or +unconsciousness mercifully supervened to spare me the spectacle of her +agony, which no human power could alleviate. + +Hours passed before this "consummation devoutly to be wished" took +effect, and, at the end of that time, my reeling brain, my fainting +energies, warned me that I, too, was probably approaching some dreadful +crisis. With a view to the refreshment its waters could possibly afford +my head, I crept quietly from the platform on which the old negro woman +held enforced guard over the insensible form of Ada Greene, and, still +clasping the poor helpless one, so mysteriously thrust upon my tender +mercies, to my bosom, I gained the edge of the raft, unnoticed by +Christian Garth, who might otherwise have apprehended me in turn, and +borne me back to my allotted precincts, and hung above the ocean, so as +to suffer its cooling spray to fall unceasingly across my burning +forehead. + +From some instinctive prompting I had lashed the poor, frail baby to my +girdle with the scarf of knotted silk I wore about my neck, and, wan +and exhausted, he lay upon my shoulder tranquilly as any Indian papoose +might do on its mother's breast. A branch of sea-weed floated past as I +looked down--some gracious mermaid's gift, perhaps, extended by her +invisible fingers to greet our famishing lips--and I caught it eagerly, +dividing the welcome nutriment with the perishing child, now patient +from weakness and instinctive consciousness, perhaps, of the entire +uselessness of cries and tears. + +Whether the weed was a sort of ocean-hasheesh, or wholesome aliment, I +never knew, but certain it is that, from the moment its juices passed my +lips, a strange and delightful quietude stole over my weary senses, fast +lapsing, as these had seemed, into unconsciousness when I left my place +to seek the ocean's brink. + +The rays of the declining sun seemed for a moment centred on one spot, +immediately before my impending face, supported as this was on one hand, +and my sight followed their lance-like rays to the very floor of ocean! + +As the waters of the Red Sea divided for the passage of Moses and the +Israelites, so seemed these to part for my mental eyes, sundered as they +were by a golden sword of infinite splendor. + +That power which neither pain nor peril can subdue had possession of me +now, and, above all, the bitter circumstances that surrounded me, and, +in the face of danger and of death, imagination asserted her supremacy. +My dream was not of passing ship or harbor gained, or rich repast, or +festival, or clustered grapes and sparkling wines, like other sufferers +from shipwreck, fevered with famine, frenzied with despair; but hasheesh +or opium never bestowed so fair, so strange a vision as that which, in +my extremity, was mercifully accorded to me. + +My eyes pursued the sea-shaft to its base, as a telescope conducts the +mortal gaze to revel in the stars. Merman and mermaid, nereid and +triton, were there, rejoicing in the sunbeams thus poured upon them +through this subtle conduit of ocean, as do the motes of summer in her +rays; but soon these disappeared, a motley crowd, confused and joyous, +leaving the vision free to pierce the depths, glowing with golden light, +in search of still greater marvels. + +Then I saw outspread before me the streets, the fanes, the towers, the +dwellings, of a vast, deserted city, one of those, I could not doubt, +that had existed before the flood, and which had lain submerged for +thousands of centuries; the fretwork of the coral-insect was over all +(that worker against time, so slow, so certain), in one monotonous web +of solid snow. + +Statues of colossal size, and arches of Titanic strength and power, +adorned the portals, the pass-ways, the temples of this metropolis of +ocean, guarded as were these last by the effigies of griffin and dragon, +and winged elephant and lion, and stately mastodon and monstrous +ichthyosaurus, all white as gleaming spar. + +Gods and demi-gods of gigantic proportions and majestic aspect were +carved on the external walls of the windowless abodes and fanes; and, +from the yawning portal of one of these, a temple vast as Dendera's +self, came forth, fold after fold, even as I seemed to gaze, the +monstrous sea-serpent of which mariners dream, more huge, more loathly, +than fancy or experience ever yet portrayed him. I still behold in +memory the stately, fearful head, with its eyes of emerald fire and +sweeping, sea-green mane, as it reared its neck for a moment as if to +scale the ladder the sunbeams had thrown down when first emerging from +its temple-cavern; and, later, the mottled, monstrous body, as coil +after coil was gradually unwound, until it seemed at last to lie in all +its loathsome length for roods along the silent, shell-paved +streets--the scaly monarch of that scene of human desolation! + +I recall the feeling of security that upheld me to look and to observe +every motion of the reptile of my dream. + +"He cannot come to me here," I thought. "The ark is sacred, and God's +hand is over it; besides, I hear the singing of the priests, and the +dove is about to be cast forth! Will the raven never come back? Oh, the +sweet olive-branch! It falls so lightly! We are nearing the mountain +now, and we shall soon cast anchor!" + +Then, among choral chants of joy and thanksgiving, I seemed to sleep. +How long this slumber lasted, or whether it came at all, I never knew. +It is a loving and tender thing in our Creator to decree to us this +curtain of unconsciousness when nerve and strength would otherwise give +way beneath the intensity of suffering--a holy and gentle thing for +which we are not half thankful enough in oar estimate of blessings. + +My sleep, or swoon, shielded me from long hours of agony, mental and +physical, that must have become unendurable ere the close. As it was, I +knew no more after the sea-shaft closed with its wondrous and mysterious +revelations (which I yet recall with marveling and admiration, as we are +wont to do a pageant of the past), until aroused from lethargy by the +hand and voice of Christian Garth. + +It was night. I saw the glimmer of the moonlight on the seas, a +tranquil, balmy night; but some dark object was interposed between me +and the stars which, I knew, were shining above, and the raft lay +motionless upon the waters. I was aware, when my senses returned +temporarily, that the bow of a mighty vessel was projected above our +frail place of refuge, and that we were saved. The dove had come at +last! + +When or how we were lifted to the deck of the ship I knew not, for, +having partially revived, I soon drifted away again into profound +lethargy and entire unconsciousness, which for a time seemed death. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +A woman sat sewing near my berth in the state-room in which I found +myself; a fan, lying on a small table at her side, betokened in what +manner she had divided her attentions--between her needle and her +helpless charge. I thought, indeed, that I had felt its soft plumes +glide gently across my face in the very moment of my awakening, in the +first amazement of which I but dimly comprehended the circumstances that +surrounded me. + +"What brought this stranger to my pillow? Who and what was she? Where +was I!" These were my mental queries at the first. Then, as the truth +gradually dawned over my sluggish and bewildered brain, I lay quietly +revolving matters, and noticed my self-constituted nurse, and my +surroundings, with the close yet careless observation of a child. + +The woman, on whom my gaze was earliest fixed (while her own seemed +riveted on the work upon her knee), was of middle age or beyond it, of +medium size, of square and sturdy make, and homely to the very verge of +ugliness. She was dressed plainly, if not commonly, in black, but there +was a general air of decency about her that seemed to place her beyond +the sphere of servitude. She wore spectacles set in tortoise-shell +frames, and she wore her iron-gray hair straight back behind small, +funnel-shaped ears, and gathered into the tightest knot behind. Her +head was flat and narrow at the summit, though broad at and above the +base of the brain. Her forehead, wide yet low, was ignoble in +expression. The mouth, shaped like a horseshoe, was curved down at the +corners, and was full of sullen resolution. The nose, pinched, yet not +pointed, showed scarcely any nostril, and might as well have been made +of wood, for any meaning it betrayed. Her eyebrows were short, wide, +rugged, and irregular, though very black; the cast-down eyes, of course, +so far inscrutable. + +She was shaping a flimsy, black-silk dress, and doing it deftly, though +it was a marvel to me how hands so stiff and cramped as hers appeared to +be could handle a needle at all. + +On one of these gnarled and unlovely fingers she wore a ring which, in +the idleness of the mood that possessed me, I examined listlessly. It +was an old-fashioned and slender circle of gold, so pale that it looked +silvery, such as in times long past had commonly been used either for +troth-plight or marriage-vows, surmounted by two small united hearts of +the same dull metal by way of ornament. Mrs. Austin, I remembered, +possessed one, the aversion of my childhood, that seemed its +counterpart. + +My weary eyes wandered from her at last, to take in the accessories of +my chamber, tiny as this was, and I saw that against the wall were +hanging a gentleman's greatcoat and hand-satchel. Cigars and books were +piled on the same table which held the spool and scissors of my +companion, and a pair of cloth slippers, embroidered with colored +chenilles and quilted lining, of masculine size and shape, reposed upon +the floor. A cane and umbrella were secured neatly in a small corner +rack. There were no traces, I saw, of feminine occupancy beyond the +transient implements of industry alluded to. + +Suddenly, in their languid, listless roving, my eyes encountered those +of my attendant fixed full upon me, while a smile distorted the homely, +sallow face, disclosing a set of yellow teeth, sound, short, and strong, +like regular grains of corn. + +In those eyes, in that mouth and saffron teeth, lay the whole power and +character of this repulsive and disagreeable physiognomy. + +Those feline orbs of mingled gray and green, with their small, pointed +pupils, were keen, vigilant, and observing beyond all eyes it had ever +before or since been my lot to encounter. After meeting their +penetrating glance I was not surprised to hear their possessor accost me +in clear, metallic tones, that seemed only the result of her gift of +insight, and consistent with it. + +"You are awake and yourself again, young lady, I am glad to see! You +have slept very quietly for the last few hours, and your fever is +wellnigh broken. Will you have some food now? You need it; you must be +weak." + +"Yes, very weak; but not hungry at all. I do not want to eat. Just let +me lie quietly awhile. It is such enjoyment." + +She complied silently and judiciously with my request. + +After a satisfactory pause, during which I had gradually collected my +ideas, I inquired, suddenly: + +"How long is it since we were lifted from the raft, and where are the +other survivors?" + +"All safe, I believe, and on board, well cared for, like yourself. It +has been nearly two days since your raft was overhauled. This was what +the captain called it," and she smiled. + +"The baby--where is he? I hope he lived." + +"Yes, he is at last out of danger, and we have obtained a nurse for him. +He would only trouble you now; but it is very natural you should be +anxious about him." + +"Yes, he was my principal care on the raft, and I do not wish to lose +sight of him. When I am better, you must let him share my room until we +reach our friends." + +"Oh, certainly!" and again she smiled her evil smile. "No one, so far as +I know of, has any right or wish to separate you; but, for the present, +you are better alone." + +"Yes, I am strangely weak--confused, even," and I passed my hand over my +blistered face and dishevelled hair with something of the feeling of the +little woman in the story who doubted her own identity. Alas! there was +not even a familiar dog to bark and determine the vexed question, "Is +this I?" + +Helpless as an infant, flaccid as the sea-weed when taken from its +native element, feeble in mind from recent suffering, broken in body, I +was cast on the mercies of strangers, ignorant, until they saw me, of my +existence, yet not indifferent to it, as their care testified. + +"You will take some food now," said the woman, kindly. "Your weakness is +not unfavorable, since it proves the fierce fever broken; but you must +hasten to gather strength for what lies before you. We shall be in port +to-morrow." + +I put away the spoon with an impatient gesture. "I cannot; it nauseates +me but to see it, to think of it. Strength will come of itself." + +"Oh, no; that is impossible. Besides, the doctor has ordered panada, and +I am responsible to him for your safety. Come, now, be reasonable. This +is very nice, seasoned with madeira and nutmeg." + +Making a strong effort to overcome my repugnance, I received one +spoonful of the proffered aliment, then sank back on my pillow, soothed +and comforted, not more by the unexpectedly good effects of the +compound, than the associations it conjured up, of my sick childhood, of +Mrs. Austin, and of Dr. Pemberton. + +"Ah! you smile; that is a good sign," said the woman; "favorable every +way. We shall have no more delirium now, I hope; no more 'bears and +serpents' about the berth; no more calls for 'Bertie' and 'Captain +Wentworth,' and you will soon be able to tell us all about yourself and +your people--all we want to know." + +I most have lapsed again into reverie rather than slumber, from which I +was partly aroused by whispering voices at the door, one of which seemed +familiar to me. Yet this fact or fancy made little impression on me at +the moment, feeble and wretched as was my will, undiscriminating as were +my faculties. + +And when the door opened, and a lady entered, I did not seek to inquire +about her interlocutor. Respectfully rising from her seat beside me, my +companion left it vacant for her, to whom she introduced me as her +mistress, and stood, work in hand, sewing beneath the skylight, while +the new-comer remained in the state-room. + +A handsome woman, tall and fashionably attired, apparently between +thirty and forty years of age, square faced, dark-eyed, rosy-cheeked, +and with curling hair, approached me with uplifted hands and eyebrows as +I lay gazing calmly upon her; for my food and slumber together had +strengthened and revived me wonderfully in the last few hours, and my +senses were again collected. + +"Awake, and herself again, as I live, even if we cannot say yet +truthfully 'clothed and in her right mind.'--Eh, Clayton?" with a +sneering simper; "and what eyes, what teeth, to be sure! Then the +dreadful redness is going away, though the skin will scale, of course; +but no matter for that; all the fairer in the end. And what a special +mercy that her hair is saved!--You have to thank _me_ for that, young +lady. I would not let the ship's doctor touch a strand of it--not a +strand. 'One does not grow a yard and a half of hair in a month, or a +year, doctor,' I observed, 'and a woman might as well be dead at once, +or mad, or a man, as have cropped hair during all the days of her +youth.' I had a fellow-feeling, you see! I have magnificent hair myself, +child, as Clayton well knows, for it is her chief trouble on earth, and +I would almost as lief die as lose it." + +"Yes, indeed, Lady Anastasia's hair is one of her chief attractions," +observed the sympathizing Clayton, behind her chair. + +"So Sir Harry Raymond thought, my dear"--addressing me--"when I married +him, ten years ago; and so somebody else thinks just now, for I am tired +of my widowhood, and intend taking on the conjugal yoke again as soon as +I reach--" + +"New York," interpolated Mrs. Clayton, hastily and emphatically; +clearing her throat slightly, by way of apology, perhaps, for her +officiousness. + +"And you shall stand bridesmaid, my dear. Yes, I am determined on it; so +never make great eyes at me. There is a little bit of romance about me +that will strike out in spite of all my worldliness; and it will be so +pretty to have an 'ocean-waif' for an attendant--it will read so well in +the papers! I suppose, when you reach your friends, there will be no +difficulty about a dress, and all that sort of thing, meet for the +occasion--a very splendid one, I assure you--conducted without regard +to expense; for my _fiance_ is very rich, I hear, and my own jointure +was a liberal one." + +"You do me a great honor," I murmured, conventionally rebelling inwardly +at the suggestion. + +"Oh, not at all!" was the gracious rejoinder. "I see at a glance, in +spite of your misfortunes, that you are one of us, which is not what I +say to everybody. True blood will show under all circumstances, though +there is such an improvement. Did any one ever see the like before? Why, +my dear, you were blistered and black when we picked you up, and +afterward sienna-colored; now you are almost a beauty!" + +"I am better--much better, and have a great deal to be thankful for, I +feel," I contented myself with murmuring. + +"Of course you have. It was just a chance with you between our ship and +death, you know. By-the-by, what name shall we give our +'treasure-trove?'" + +"Miriam for the present, if you please. This is no time nor place for +ceremony." + +"Well, Miriam it shall be," she repeated with laughing eyes (hers were +of that sort which close and grow Chinese under the pressure of +merriment and high cheekbones combined). "Miriam, I like the name--there +is something grand about it." + +"But how shall we know where to find your friends when we get to port?" +asked my first attendant. "We _must_ know more than your Christian name +for such a purpose. You must place confidence in us, you must indeed!" + +"Be patient with me," I entreated. "I am much too feeble yet to give you +the details that may be necessary. When we reach New York, you shall +know every thing: or is it, indeed, to that place this ship is bound?" + +"I thought you knew all about your destination by this time," replied +Lady Anastasia Raymond. "Yes, yes, New York of course!" and again she +laughed. "Didn't you hear Clayton say so?" + +Just then a sharp tap at the door was answered by Lady Anastasia, who +went quickly from beneath the curtain hung across it (in consideration, +no doubt, of the privacy my illness enjoined), but not before I had +caught once, and this time clearly, the tones of a voice that thrilled +to my life, the same that had haunted my delirious fancy, I now +remembered, through the last four-and-twenty hours. + +I rose to my elbow impulsively, only to fall back again utterly +exhausted. + +"Who was that speaking?" I asked, feebly; "can it be possible--" and I +wrung my hands. + +"It was the ship's doctor," interrupted the woman I had heard called +Clayton by her mistress. "He had not time to do more than inquire about +you, I suppose, there are so many ill in the steerage; but he has been +very kind and will probably return." + +"I hope so," I rejoined; "I should like to realize that voice as _his_. +It has haunted me very disagreeably in my dreams, and the tones are +those of an old, old acquaintance, one I should be sorry to see here." + +"I do not believe you have an acquaintance on the ship," she said, +simply, "Under the circumstances any such person would certainly have +discovered himself; your situation would have moved a heart of stone." + +"But it is sometimes wise for the wicked to lie _perdu_," I murmured, +and conjecture was busy in my brain. "I should be glad, too, to see the +captain of this vessel at his earliest convenience," I added, after a +pause. + +"Will you be so good as to apprise him in person of my earnest wish? It +would be a real charity." + +"Oh, certainly; but I am afraid he cannot come to-night. It is nearly +evening now, and he never leaves the deck at this hour, nor until very +late." + +"To-morrow, then, I must insist on this interview, since I reflect about +it for several reasons." + +"To-morrow he shall come," she said, sententiously; "and now try and +sleep again. It is very necessary you should gather strength, for we +shall be in port shortly, when all will be confusion." + +I went to sleep, I remember, murmuring to myself: "The hands were the +hands of Jacob, but the voice was the voice of Esau;" and my bewildered +faculties found rest until the morning's dawn. + +After a hasty toilet made by the careful hands of Mrs. Clayton, a +matutinal visit made by Mrs. or Lady Raymond, who always rose early as +she informed me, and a cup of tea, very soothing to my prostrated +nerves, the potentate of the Latona was duly announced. + +Our ship's master was a tall, gaunt, sandy-haired man, with steady gray +eyes, hard features, and enormous hands and feet, the first freckled and +awkward, the last so long as very nearly to span the space between his +seat (a small Spanish-leather trunk) and the berth I reposed in. He +entered without his hat; and the swoop of the head he made to avoid the +entanglement of the curtain was supposed to do double duty, and serve as +a bow to the inmate of his state-room as well, for his I supposed it to +be at the time, and he did not contradict me. + +"I hope you find yourself comfortable, marm, on board of my ship." + +"And in your state-room, captain!" I interrupted promptly. + +"Wall, you see it all belongs to me, kinder," he said, after seating +himself, as he rubbed his huge, projecting knees, plainly indicated +through his nankeen trousers, with his capacious, horny hands. "I'm not +very particular, though, where I sleep on shipboard, but at home there's +few more so." + +"I thought a captain was more at home on shipboard than anywhere else," +I pursued mechanically; "such is the theory at least." + +"Oh, not at all, not at all; when he has a snug nest on land, with a +wife and children waiting to receive him. You might as well talk of a +man in the new settlements bein' more at home in his wagon than in his +neat, hewn-log cabin." + +"A very good simile, captain, and one that kills the ancient theory +outright. Let me thank you, however, before we proceed further, for all +the kindness and attention I have received in this floating castle of +yours, both from you and others. I hope and believe that my companions +in misfortune have fared as well." + +"Wall, they have not wanted for nothing as far as I knew--the poor baby +in particular;" and, as he spoke, he roughed his hair with one hand and +smiled into my face a huge, honest, gummy smile, inexpressibly +reassuring. + +"The man is hideous and repulsive," I thought; "but infinitely +preferable, somehow, to the specimen of English aristocracy and her maid +who have constituted themselves so far my guardian angels"--a twinge of +ingratitude here, which I resented instantly by settling my patriotic +prejudices to be at the root of the thing, and rebuking my mistrust +sternly though silently. "Yet that voice--how could I be mistaken?" and +again I addressed myself to the task before me, having gotten through +all preliminaries. + +While I sat hesitating as to what I should say, so as to both guard +against and conceal my suspicions from the captain's scrutiny, if, +indeed, he might be supposed to possess such a quality, I observed that +he drew from his pocket a long slip of newspaper, in which he appeared +to bury himself for a time, when not glancing furtively at me, as if +waiting impatiently for the coming revelation. + +"I have sent for you, Captain Van Dorne," I said, at last, in very low +and even tones, not calculated to reach outside ears, however vigilant, +and yet not suppressed by any means to whispers--"I have sent for you," +and my heart beat quickly as I spoke, "not merely to thank you for your +hospitable kindness, but because I wish, for reasons that I cannot now +explain, to place myself under your especial care until I reach my +friends." + +"Certainly, certainly; but you _air_ among your friends already if you +could only think so," he answered, evasively, still caressing his potato +knees with large and outspread hands. + +"Do not for one moment deem me unmindful of much kindness, or ungrateful +to those who have bestowed it," I hastened to explain. "Yet I cannot +deny that a fear possesses me that among your passengers may be found +one whom I esteem, not without sufficient cause, my greatest enemy." + +"Poor thing! poor thing! what put such a strange fancy into your head? +An enemy in my ship! Why, there is not a man on board who would not cut +off his right hand rather than harm one hair of your poor, witless, +defenseless head! There was not a dry eye on the deck when you and the +rest wuz lifted from the raft!" + +"I understand this prevalence of sympathy for misfortune perfectly, and +honor it; yet I have heard a voice since my immurement in this cabin +which must belong"--and I whispered the dreaded name--"to Mr. Basil +Bainrothe!" + +As I spoke I eyed him steadily, and I fancied that his cheek flushed and +his eye wavered--that clear and honest eye which had given him a high +place in my consideration from the moment I met its gaze. + +"You must have been delirious-like when you conceited you heerd that +strange voice," he said, presently. "I'll send you my passenger-list if +you choose, and you can read it over keerfully. I don't think you'll +find _that_ name, though, in its kolynms," shaking his head sagaciously. + +"Captain Van Dorne, do you mean to say there is no such passenger in +your ship's list as Basil Bainrothe?" I asked, desperately. + +"That's what I mean to say." + +"Give me your honor on this point. It is a vital one to me. Your honor!" + +He hesitated and looked around. Just at this moment of apparent +uncertainty, a slight tap was heard on the ground-glass eye above us +that threw a sullen and unwilling light upon the scene of our interview. +It seemed to nerve him strangely. + +"On my word of honor, as an American seaman, I assure you that the name +of Basil Bainrothe is not on the ship's list at this present speaking;" +and, as he spoke, he held up his right hand, adding, as he dropped it, +doggedly, "Ef the man's on board I don't know it!" + +"It is enough--I believe you, Captain Van Dorne. And now I want to ask +you, as a parting grace, to convey me yourself to the Astor House, and +place my watch" (detaching it from my neck as I spoke) "in the hands of +the proprietors as a proof of my honest intentions. For yourself, I +shall seek another opportunity." + +"Not at all--not at all!" he interrupted. "Keep your watch, young lady. +No such pledge will be required by them proprietors; and, as to myself, +if it had not been for this paper," drawing from his pocket, and +flattening on his knees as he spoke, the slip I had before observed, +then glancing at me sharply, "I could never have believed that such a +pretty-spoken, pretty-behaved young creetur could have been _non com_. +But pshaw! what am I talking about? This paper is as old as last year's +krout! You don't keer nothing about seeing of it, do you, now?" and he +crumpled it in his hand. + +"Not unless it concerns me in some way, Captain Van Dorne," I said, +coldly. His manner had suddenly become offensive to me, and I longed to +see him depart, having transacted my affairs, as far, at least, as I +deemed it prudent to insist on such transaction. + +"It may be," I added, "that, on reaching the port of New York, a friend +or friends who expected me on the Kosciusko may be in waiting to receive +me; that is, if the fate of that vessel be not already known. In that +case, I shall not be obliged to avail myself of your services, and will +acquaint you; but, otherwise, promise that you will conduct me from the +ship yourself, either to the hotel or to your wife, as you prefer." + +"Wall, I promise you," he said, doggedly, as he prepared literally to +undouble his long frame before executing another dive beneath my +door-guarding drapery, and with this brief assurance I was fain to rest +content. + +At all events, I was reassured on one subject--those honest eyes, that +frank if ugly mouth had no acquaintance with lies, or the father of +them, I saw at once; and the voice of the ship's doctor had for the +nonce deceived my practised ear, overstrung by suspicion--enfeebled by +suffering. + +So I rested calmly until the afternoon, with Mrs. Clayton sewing +silently by my side, when with a little tap Lady Anastasia (or Mrs. +Raymond, as she declared she preferred to be called by "Americans") +entered, bearing a basket in her hand, and wearing on her head a +Dunstable bonnet simply trimmed, which she came, she said, to place, +along with other articles of dress, at my disposal. + +It had not occurred to me before that, in order to go on shore +respectably clad, some attire very different from a bed-gown would be +essential, and I could but feel grateful for such proofs of unselfish +consideration on the part of strangers, pitying both my indigence and +imbecility, and so expressed myself. + +In accordance with their generous intentions, I submitted myself to be +arrayed by Mrs. Clayton and her mistress: first, in the flimsy black +silk gown now completed, on which I had seen my attendant working when I +first unclosed my eyes after long unconsciousness, and the measure of +which she had taken, while I lay in this condition, as coolly in all +probability as an undertaker measures a corpse for its shroud; secondly, +in a cardinal of the same material, a wrapping cut in the shape in vogue +at that period; thirdly, in certain loosely-fitting boots and gloves +with which I was fain to cover up my naked feet and blistered hands _in +forma pauperis_; and, lastly, in the collarette and cuffs provided by +the economic and considerate Lady Anastasia, composed of cotton lace! +The Dunstable bonnet was hung upon a peg in readiness, and I was kindly +counseled to lie still, "accoutred as I was," and exhausted by means of +such accoutrement as I felt, until evening should find us riding in our +harbor. + +Then there was a little, low consulting at the door with the renowned +"ship's doctor," who positively refused to approach me because he had +just come from a case of ship-fever in the steerage, which he feared to +communicate to one in my precarious state, but who sent in his +imperative orders that I should have soup and sherry-cobbler forthwith, +and try and build up my strength for the time of debarkation--speaking +in a low, growling voice divested of its former clearness, but still +strangely resembling that of Basil Bainrothe! + +"The poor man is so fagged out," said Mrs. Clayton, as she brought in my +broth and wine, "that his very voice is changed. He is a good soul, and +has shown you great interest. Some day you must send him a present, that +is, if you are able; but just now all you have to think of is getting +safe ashore. Lady Anastasia will go to her friends, probably, or to +those of the gentleman she is engaged to; but I do not mean to forsake +you until I see you better, and in good hands." + +I know not how it was that my heart sank so strangely at this +announcement. The woman was kind--tender, even--and had probably saved +my life, and yet her presence to me was a punishment worse than pain, a +positive evil greater than any other. + +"I shall go to the Astor House," I faltered. "The captain has promised +me his escort thither." + +"Yes, yes, I know, he has told me all about it; but your friends may not +be in waiting, and it is simply our duty to see you in their hands. And +now drink your sangaree. See, I have broken a biscuit in the glass, and +it is well seasoned with lemon and nutmeg. There, now, that is right; a +few spoonfuls of soup, and you will feel strengthened for your +undertaking. I will sit quietly in the corner until you have your rest." + +"No, I prefer to see Christian Garth before I try to sleep--the man who +steered our raft--and the young girl he saved, and the baby--let them +all come to me, and we will go on shore together." + +I spoke these words with a sort of desperation, as though they contained +my last hope of justice or protection from a fate which, however +obscurely, seemed to threaten me, as we feel the thunder-storm brooding +in the tranquil atmosphere of summer. + +"Christian Garth!" she repeated, looking at me over her tortoise-shell +spectacles, and, quietly drawing out a snuffbox of the same material, +she proceeded to fill her narrow nostrils therewith. "Why, that +shaggy-looking old sailor, and the girl, and the old negro woman and +child, went on shore at daylight this morning. He hailed a Jersey craft, +and they all left together. It is perfectly understood, though, that the +child is to be returned to you if you desire its company, but, if I were +situated as you are, and sure of its safety, I would never want to see +it again. It would be better off dead than living anyhow, under the +circumstances, poor, deformed creature--better for both of you." + +The words came to me distinctly, yet as if from an immense distance, and +I seemed to see the small chamber lengthening as if it had been a +telescope unfolding, and the sallow woman with her hateful smile and +tightly-knotted, brindled hair seated in diminished size and +distinctness at its farthest extremity. + +So had I felt on that fearful night when Evelyn had made her revelation +and received mine, and I did not doubt, even in my sinking state, that I +was under the influence of a powerful anodyne. + +"Call the ship's doctor--I am dying!" were the last words I remember to +have articulated; then all was dark, and hours went by, of deep, +unconscious sleep. + +It was night when I felt myself drawn to my feet, and roused to life by +the repeated applications of cold water to my face, "The anodyne was +over-powerful," I heard Mrs. Raymond say. "It is a shame to tamper with +such strong medicines." + +"Oh, she has strength for any thing!" was Clayton's rejoinder. "I never +saw such a constitution--and he knew what he was doing." + +"No doubt of that.--But, dear Miss Miriam, do speak to me. I am so +frightened at your lethargic condition.--I declare I am sorry I ever +consented to have any thing to do with this matter! See how she stands. +I cannot think it was right, Clayton, I cannot, indeed; I dislike the +whole drama." + +"Do be quiet! She is coming to herself fast, and what will she think of +such expressions? You never had any self-control in your life, and you +are playing for great stakes now." These last words in a hoarse whisper. + +"Nonsense! mother." + +"Again! How often must I warn you?" + +"Well, Clayton, then, now and forever." + +"Here! rouse up, little one! We are fast anchored in port, and the +captain is waiting for us, for we go part of the way together, and our +escorts have all failed us--yours and mine. Nice fellows, are they not?" + +I sat up and looked about me bewildered; yet I had heard distinctly +every word spoken in the last few minutes, and remembered them for +future observance, without having had the power to move or articulate a +remonstrance. + +"Now, drink this strong coffee, and all will be well again," said +Clayton, putting a cup of the smoking beverage to my lips, which I +swallowed eagerly, instinctively. The effect was instantaneous, and I +was able to speak and stand, as well as hear and comprehend, while my +bonnet was being tied on, and my throat muffled in a veil, by the +dexterous fingers of Lady Anastasia. + +When this process was completed, she stooped down and kissed me, and I +felt a hot tear fall upon my cheek as she rose again. In the next moment +I was clinging to the captain's arm, with a spasmodic feeling of relief +for which I could ill account. We passed across the plank which +connected the ship with the shore in utter darkness, guided by a +twinkling light far ahead, borne by a seaman, reached the dusky quay, +with its few flaring lamps, made dim by drizzling rain and summer mist, +and before many minutes we paused before one of a long line of coaches. + +The captain handed me in, then, standing before the open door, seemed to +await the coming of some other person before taking his own place--the +dreaded Clayton, I knew; but I could not remonstrate against what seemed +an ordinary courtesy, and perhaps a step suggested by his innate notions +of propriety. + +At any other time I might have agreed with him; but, feeble as I was, +and still bewildered, my whole object seemed to be to escape from the +sphere and power of those women, who had been most kind to me, yet whom +I instinctively dreaded and abhorred. + +They came together, the mother and daughter, in their travesty of +mistress and maid--enough of itself to excite suspicion of foul +play--and climbed up the rickety steps of the hackney-coach, rejoicing +over their victim. It mattered not; the captain would make the fourth +passenger, and in his shadow I felt there were strength and security. + +"What are you waiting for, Captain Van Dorne?" I had just feebly asked, +as the door snapped-to, and the driver mounted his box. A hand was +thrust through the window for all reply, and a card dropped upon my lap, +which I hastened to secure in the depths of my pocket. By the merest +chance, I found it there on the morrow, and later I comprehended its +import, so mysterious to me at the moment of perusal. + + "My poor young lady, you must forgive me for disappointing you, + and hidin' the truth, for your own sake. May God bless and + restore you, and bring you to a proper sense of his mercies, is + the prayer of your servant to command, + + "JOSEPH VAN DORNE." + +My frame of mind was a very different one when I read this scrawl, from +that which bewildered and oppressed me on that never-to-be-forgotten +night of suffering and distress, both mental and physical. Formed of +those elements which readily react, courage and calmness had returned to +me before I read the oracle of our worthy shipmaster; for, in spite of +his disastrous dealing with me on that occasion, misguided as he was by +others, I have reason to so consider him. + +But now the influence of the drug that had been given me so recently, +doubtless through want of judgment, by the ship's doctor, was felt in +every nerve; and, as the carriage rolled up the stony quay, I clung +convulsively to Mrs. Raymond, and buried my face and aching forehead in +her shoulder, with a strange revulsion of feeling. + +"You dread the darkness," she said, kindly, putting her arm around me as +she spoke; "but it is only for a time; we shall soon come out into the +open lamplight of--" + +"Broadway, New York," interrupted Clayton, sententiously; "a very poor +sight to see, to one who has lived abroad. Have you ever crossed the +waters, Miss Miriam? But I see you are quite faint and overcome. Here, +smell this ether, that the ship's doctor put up expressly for your use, +and recommended highly as a new restorative much in fashion in Paris." + +Had the ship's doctor no name, then, that they never mentioned it, and +that he spoke in a demon's voice? His doses I had proved, and was +resolved to take no more of them, and I pushed away the phial, whose +cold glass nose was thrust obtrusively against my own--pushed it away +with all my strength, fast ebbing away as this was, even as I made the +effort. + +The cruel potion had possession of me, and entered into every fibre of +my brain through the avenues prepared for it by the treacherous anodyne; +so that, enervated and intoxicated, I yielded passively, after a brief +struggle, to the power of the then newly-invented sedative, called +chloroform. + +When the carriage stopped, or whither it transported me, or who lifted +my insensible form to the chamber prepared for me, I know not--never +knew. There was a faint reviving, I remember; a process of disrobing +gone through by the aid of foreign assistance (whose, I recognized +not), then I slumbered profoundly and securely through the entire night, +to recover no clearness of perception until a late hour on the following +morning. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +I awoke, as I had done of old, after one of my lethargic seizures, from +a deep, unrefreshing slumber, with a lingering sense about me of +drowsiness and even fatigue. + +I found myself lying on a broad, canopied bedstead, the massive posts of +which were of wrought rosewood, bare of draperies, as became the season, +save at the head-board, behind which a heavy curtain was dropped of +rose-colored damask satin. + +Of the same rich material were composed the tester and the +lightly-quilted coverlet, thrown across the foot of the bed, over a fine +white Marseilles counterpane. + +The chimney immediately opposite to me, as I lay, was of black marble, +and, instead of graceful Greek _caryatides_, bandaged mummies, or +Egyptian figures, supported the heavy shelf that surmounted the polished +grate. In the centre of this massive mantel-slab was placed a huge +bronze clock, and candelabra of the same material graced its corners. + +In either recess of this chimney rosewood doors were situated, one of +which stood invitingly ajar, disclosing the bath-room, into which it +opened, with its accessories of white marble. + +The other, firmly closed, seemed to be the outlet of the chamber--its +only one--with the exception of the four large Venetian windows, two on +either side of me as I lay, the sashes of which, warm as the season was, +were drawn closely down. + +The furniture of this spacious chamber to which, as if by the touch of a +magician's wand, I found myself transported, was throughout solid and of +elegant forms, consisting as it did of _armoire_, toilet-table, +bookcase, _etagere_, writing and flower stands, tables and chairs, of +the richest rosewood. + +At the foot of my bed was placed a console, supporting a huge Bible and +Prayer-book, bound alike in purple velvet, emblazoned with central suns +of gold--an arch-hypocrisy that was not lost on its object. +Freshly-gathered flowers were heaped in the vases of the floral stands, +filling the close, cool room with an overpowering fragrance. The carpet +of crimson and white seemed to the eye what it afterward proved to the +foot--thick, soft, and elastic; and harmonized well with the rich, +antique, and consistent furniture. + +The sort of microscopic scrutiny that children manifest seemed mine--in +my unreasoning, half-convalescent state; and for a time I observed all +that I have described with a listless pleasure, difficult to analyze, a +sort of dreamy acceptance of my condition, the very memory of which +exasperated me, later, almost to self-contempt. + +A crimson cord hung at one side of my bed, continued from a bell-wire at +some distance, the tassel of which I touched lightly, and, at the very +first signal, Mrs. Clayton appeared through the hitherto only unopened +door, to know and do my bidding. + +The clock on the mantel-shelf struck nine as she stood beside me, and +made respectful inquiries concerning my wants and condition; +understanding which, she disappeared, to return a few minutes later, +followed by an ancient negress, bearing a silver waiter. + +I recognized in this sable assistant (or thought I recognized at a +glance) my companion in shipwreck; but, upon making known my +convictions, was met with a prompt denial by the sable dame herself, +who, shaking her head, gave me to understand, in a few broken words, +that she "no understood English--only Spanish tongue!" + +Her dress--handsome and Frenchified--her Creole coiffure, and the long +gray locks that escaped from her crimson kerchief bound over her ears, +as well as her more refined deportment, did indeed seem to discredit my +first idea, which came at last (notwithstanding these discrepancies) to +be fixed, and proved one link in the long chain of duplicity I untangled +later. + +At the time, however, I gave it little thought, but partook with what +appetite I might of the choice and delicate repast provided for me, in +this truly princely hotel, whose fame I discovered had not been over +trumpeted. On my previous visits to New York, the Astor House had been +unfinished, and had made in its completion a new era certainly in the +"tavern-life" of that inhospitable city of publicans. When the delicious +coffee and snowy bread, the eggs of milky freshness, the golden butter, +the savory rice-birds, the appetizing fish, had each and all been merely +tasted and dismissed, and the exquisite China, in which the breakfast +was served, duly marveled at as an unprecedented extravagance on the +part even of John Jacob Astor, Mrs. Clayton came to me with kindly +offers of assistance in the performance of my toilet, still a matter of +difficulty in my feeble hands. + +My long hair, yet tangled and clogged with sea-water, was to be at last +unbound and thoroughly combed, cleansed, and oiled, so that the black +and glossy braids, that had been my chief personal pride, might again be +wound about my head in the old classic fashion. + +Then came the bath, with its reviving, rehabilitating process, and +lastly I assumed with the docility of a baby or a pauper the clean and +fragrant linen and simple wrapper that had been mysteriously provided +for me by the Lady Anastasia again, I could not doubt. + +"All this must end to-day," I said, "when really clothed and in my right +mind." I requested writing-materials and more light to work by, and +composed myself to write to Dr. Pemberton (once again, I knew, in +Philadelphia), and request his assistance and protection in getting home +safely, and, if need be, in tracing Captain Wentworth. + +"I suppose Captain Van Dorne has been too busy to call," I observed, +carelessly, as I prepared to commence my letter, "and Mrs. Raymond too +happy, probably, in getting safe to shore and her lover, to think of +me." + +"They have both inquired for you," said Mrs. Clayton, as she arranged +pen, ink, and paper, before me, with her usual precision, while a grim, +sardonic smile lingered about her features; "several have called, but +none have been admitted." + +"Who have called, Mrs. Clayton! Give me the cards immediately. I must, +must know," I rejoined, eagerly, pausing with extended hand to receive +them. + +"Oh, there were no cards, and such as want to see you can come again. +There, now! write away, and never trouble your mind about strange +people. Have you sufficient light?" + +And, as she spoke, she touched a cord which set at right angles with +the lower one the upper inside shutter of another window as she had +adjusted the first. + +I wrote two hasty notes, one on further consideration to Captain +Wentworth himself, who might, after all, be at that very time in that +same hotel--"_Quien sabe_?" as Favraud used to say with his significant +shrug, which no Frenchman ever excelled or Spaniard equalled (albeit +they shrug severally). + +My spirits rose with every word I wrote, and, when I got up from my +chair after sealing and directing my letters, a new and subtle energy +seemed to have infused itself through my frame. "There, I have finished, +Mrs. Clayton," I said, putting aside the implements I had been using. +"Now go, if you please, and bring to me the proprietor of this hotel. I +will give him my letters myself, since I have other business to transact +with him," and I laid my watch and chain on the table before me, ready +for his hand, not having lost sight of my early resolution. "But, +stay--before you go, be good enough to open the lower shutters and throw +up the windows. Cool as the weather is in this climate, I stifle for +air, and this close atmosphere, laden with fragrance, grows oppressive. +Who sent these flowers, by-the-by, Mrs. Clayton? or do they belong to +the magnificence of this idealized hotel?" She made no reply to any +thing I had been saying. + +By this time, however, she had lowered the upper sashes of the windows +about a foot, and the fresh air of morning was pouring in, curling the +paper on the centre table and dispersing the noisome fragrance of the +flowers, in which I detected the morbid supremacy of the tuberose and +jasmine. + +"I want to see the streets, the people," I said, approaching one of the +windows; "this artistic light is not at all the thing I need. I have no +picture to paint, not even my own face;" and, finding her unmoved, I +undertook to do the requisite work myself. + +The sashes were shut away below by inside shutters, which resisted all +my efforts to stir them. After a moment's inspection, I perceived that +they were secured by iron screws of great strength and size; not, in +short, meant to be moved or opened at all. Again I essayed to shake them +convulsively one after the other--as you may sometimes see a tiger, made +desperate by confinement, grapple with the inexorable bars of his cage, +though certain of failure and defeat. + +Overpowered by a sudden dismay that took entire possession of me, I sank +into one of the deep _fauteuils_ that extended its arms very opportunely +to receive me, and sat mutely for a moment, while anguish unutterable, +and conjecture too wild to be hazarded in speech, were surging through +my brain. + +"I am too weak, I suppose, to open these shutters," I said at last, +feebly. "Be good enough to do it for me, Mrs. Clayton, or cause it to be +done immediately." + +Was it not strange that up to this very moment no suspicion had clouded +my horizon since I woke in that sumptuous room? + +"I cannot transcend my orders by doing any thing of the kind," she said +quietly, yet resolutely, as she pursued her avocation, that of dusting +with a bunch of colored plumes the delicate ornaments of the _etagere_ +carefully one by one. + +"Your authority! Who has dared to delegate to you what has no existence +as far as I am concerned?" I asked indignantly. "I will go instantly." + +"You cannot leave this chamber until you receive outside permission," +she interrupted, firmly planting herself at once between me and the door +through which I had seen her enter. "You must not think to pass through +my chamber, Miss Miriam. It is locked without, and there is no other +outlet." + +"Woman!" I said, grasping her feebly yet fiercely, by the arm. "Look at +me! Raise those feline eyes to mine, if you dare, and answer me +truthfully: What means this mockery! Why have you been forced on me at +all? Where is Captain Van Dorne? What becomes of his promises? What +house is this in which I find myself a prisoner? Speak!" + +"You can do nothing to make me angry," she rejoined, calmly. "I know +your condition, and pity and respect it, but I shall certainly fulfill +my part of this undertaking. Captain Van Dorne recognized you as Miss +Monfort by the description in the newspaper, as did my mistress, and for +your own welfare we determined to secure you and keep you safe until the +return of Mr. Bainrothe and your sisters from Europe. They will be here +shortly, and all you have to do is to be patient and behave as well as +you can until the time comes for your trial;" and she cast on me a +menacing look from her green and quivering pupils, indescribably feline. + +My trial! Great Heaven! did they mean to turn the tables, then, and +destroy me by anticipating my evidence? I staggered to a chair and again +sat down silent confounded. "Where am I, then!" I feebly asked at +length. + +"In the establishment of Dr. Englehart," she made answer, "a private +madhouse." + +"God of heaven! has it come to this?" I covered my eyes with my hands +and sobbed aloud, while tears of pride and passion rained hotly over my +cheeks. This outburst was of short duration. "I will give them no +advantage," I considered. "My violence might be perverted. There are +creatures too cold and crafty to conceive of such a thing as natural +emotion, and passion with them means insanity. Thank God, the very power +to feel bears with it the power of self-government, and is proof of +reason. I will be calm, and if my life endures put them thus to +shame."--"You say that I am in the asylum of Dr. Englehart?" I asked, +after a pause, during which she had not ceased to dust the furniture and +arrange the bed in its pristine order, speckless, with lace-trimmings, +pillow-cases smooth as glass, and sheets of lawn, and counterpane of +snow. "If so, call my physician hither; I, his patient, have surely a +right to his prompt services."--"It is just possible," I thought, "that +interest or compassion may, one or both, still enlist him in my cause--I +can but try." + +A slight embarrassment was evidenced in her countenance as I made this +request. It vanished speedily. + +"He is absent just at this time," she answered, quickly. "When he +returns I will make known your wish to him, if, indeed, he does not call +of his own accord." + +"Be done with this shallow farce," I exclaimed, harshly. "It shames +humanity. Acknowledge yourself at once the faithful agent of a tyrant +and felon, or a pair of them, and I shall respect you more. Confess that +it was the voice of Basil Bainrothe I heard at my cabin-door, and that +Captain Van Dorne was imposed upon by that specious scoundrel, even to +the point of being conscientiously compelled to falsehood. + +"I deny nothing--I acknowledge nothing," she said, deliberately. "You +and your friends can settle this between yourselves when they arrive. +Until then, you need not seek to tamper with me--it will be useless; and +I hope you are too much of a lady to be insulting to a person who has +no choice but to do her duty." + +She could not more effectually have silenced me, nor more utterly have +crushed my hopes. Yet again I approached her with entreaties. + +"I hope you will not refuse to mail my notes, even under these trying +circumstances," I said, extending them to her. + +"You can ask Dr. Englehart to do so when he comes," he answered, gently; +"for myself, I am utterly powerless to serve you beyond the walls of +this chamber." + +"And how long is this close immurement to continue?" I asked again, +after another dreary pause. "Am I not permitted to breathe the external +air--to exercise? Is my health to be unconsidered?" + +"I know nothing more than I have told you," she replied. "I am directed +to furnish you with every means of comfort--with books, flowers, +clothing, musical instrument, even, if you desire it; but, for the +present, you will not leave these walls, and you will see no society. +The doctor has decided that this is best." + +"And whence did he derive his authority?" + +"Oh, it was all arranged between him and Mr. Bainrothe, your guardeen" +(for thus she pronounced this word, ever hateful to me), "long ago; +before he went to France, I suppose. Captain Van Dorne had nothing to do +but hand you over." + +"Captain Van Dorne! To think those honest eyes could so deceive me!" and +I shook my head wofully. + +When I looked up again from reverie, Mrs. Clayton had settled herself to +work with a basket of stockings on her knees, which she appeared to be +assorting assiduously. + +There she sat, spectacles on nose, thimble on twisted finger, ivory-egg +in hand, in active preparation for that work, woman's _par excellence_, +that alone rivals Penelope's. Surely that assortment of yellow, +ill-mated, half-worn, and holey hose, was a treasure to her, that no +gold could have replaced, in our dreary solitude (none the less dreary +for being so luxurious). I envied her almost the power she seemed to +have to merge her mind in things like these; and saw, for the first time +in my life, what advantages might lie in being commonplace. + +It was now nearly the end of July. My birthday occurred in the middle of +September. I thought I knew that, as soon as possible after my majority, +Mr. Bainrothe's conditions would be laid before me. + +I could not, dared not, believe that my captivity would be lengthened +beyond that time. I resolved that I would condone the past, and go forth +penniless, if this were exacted in exchange for liberty at the end of a +month and a half from this time. + +Six weeks to wait! Were they not, in the fullness of their power, to +crush and baffle me! Six weary years! For, during all this time, I felt +that the unexplained mystery that weighed upon my life would gather in +force and inflexibility. Death would have seemed to have set its seal +upon it, in the estimation of Captain Wentworth, as of all others. He +would never know that the sea, which swallowed up the Kosciusko, had +spared the woman he loved, nor receive the explanation that she alone +could give him, of the mystery he deplored. + +Before I emerged from my prison, he might be gone to the antipodes, for +aught I knew, and a barrier of eternal silence and absence be interposed +between us. So worked my fate! These reflections continued to haunt and +oppress me, by night and day, and life itself seemed a bitter burden in +that interval of rebellious agony, and in that terrible seclusion, where +luxury itself became an additional engine of torture. + +Days passed, alternately of leaden apathy and bitter gloom, varied by +irrepressible paroxysms of despair. Whenever I found myself alone, even +for a few moments, I paced my room and wept aloud, or prayed +passionately. There were times when I felt that my Creator heard and +pitied me; others when I persuaded myself his ear was closed inexorably +against me. + +I suffered fearfully--this could not last. The accusation brought +against me by my enemies seemed almost ready to be realized, when my +body magnanimously assumed the penalty the soul was perhaps about to +pay, and drifted off to fever. + +Then, for the first time, came the man I had until then believed a myth, +and sat beside me in the shadow, and administered to me small, mystic +pellets, that he assured me, in low, husky whispers, and foreign accent, +would infallibly cure my malady--my physical one, at least; as for the +mind, its forces, he regretted to add, were beyond such influence! + +For a moment, the wild suspicion intruded on my fevered brain that this +leech was no other than Basil Bainrothe himself, disguised for his own +dark purposes; but the tall, square, high-shouldered form that rose +before me to depart (taller, by half a head, than the man I suspected of +this fresh deception), and the angular movements and large extremities +of Dr. Englehart, dispelled this delusion forever. After all, might he +not be honest, even if a tool of Bainrothe's? + +I took the sugared minature pills--the novel medicine he had left for +me--faithfully, through ministry of Mrs. Clayton's, and was benefited +by them; and, when he came again, as before, in the twilight, I was able +to be installed in the great cushioned chair he had sent up for me, and +to bear the light of a shaded lamp in one corner of the large apartment. + +Dr. Englehart approached me deferentially, and, without divesting +himself of the light-kid gloves which fitted his large hands so closely, +he clasped my wrist with his finger and thumb, and seemed to count my +pulses. + +"Ver much bettair," was his first remark, made in that disagreeable, +harsh, and husky voice of his, while he bent so near me that the aroma +of the tobacco he had been smoking caused me to cough and turn aside. + +Still, I could not see his face, for the immense bushy whiskers he wore, +nor his eyes, for the glasses that covered them, nor his teeth, even, +for the long, fierce mustache that swept his lips; and when, after a +brief visit, he rose and was gone again, there remained only in my mind +the image of a huge and hairy horror--a sort of bear of the Blue +Mountains, from the return of which or whom I fervently hoped to be +delivered. + +"Send him word I am better, Mrs. Clayton," I entreated; "I cannot see +him again, he is so repulsive; and, if you have a woman's heart in your +breast, never leave me alone with him, or with Mr. Bainrothe, when he +calls, for one moment--they inspire me equally with terror +indescribable," and I covered my face to hide its burning blushes. + +"Look up, Miss Monfort, and listen to me," said Mrs. Clayton, at last, +regarding me keenly, with her warped forefinger uplifted in her usual +admonitory fashion, but with an expression on her face of interest and +sympathy such as I had never witnessed there before. "A new light has +broken just now upon my understanding; I can't tell how or whence it +came, but here it is," pressing her hand to her brow; "I believe you +have been misrepresented to me--but that is neither here nor there. I +shall watch you closely and faithfully until we part--all the more that +I do not believe you any more crazy than I am; I half suspected this +before, but I know it now." She paused, then continued: "I should have +to tell you my life's secret if I were to explain to you why Mr. +Bainrothe's interests are so dear to me, so vital even, and I will not +conceal from you that I knew your guardeen's good name depends on your +confinement here until you come of age. After that it will only be +necessary for you to sign a few papers, and all will be straight +again--no harm or insult is designed. To these I would never have lent +myself in any way--ill as you think of me. And as long as we continue +together I will guard your good name as I would do that of my own dear +daughter--that is, if I had one. You shall receive no visitor alone." + +She spoke with a feeling and dignity of which I had scarcely believed +her capable, shrewd and sensible as I knew her to be, and far above the +woman she called her mistress, in a certain _retenu_ of manner and +delicacy of deportment, usually inseparable from good-breeding. + +I could not then guess how acceptable, to her and the person she was +chiefly interested in, were these signs of my aversion for Basil +Bainrothe, and what sure means they were of access to the only tender +spot in the obdurate heart of Rachel Clayton. + +Certain it is that, from these expressions, I derived the first +consolation that had come to me in my immurement, and from that hour the +solemn farce of keeper and lunatic ceased to be played between us two. + +From such freedom of communication on my jailer's part, I began to hope +for additional information, which never came. It was in vain that I +conjured her to tell me where my prison was situated, whether at the +edge of the city, or far away in the country, or to suffer me to have a +glimpse from a window of my vicinity. To all such entreaties she was +pitiless, and I was left to that vague and vain conjecture which so +wears the intellect. + +In the absence of all possibility of escape, it became a morbid and +haunting wish with me to know my exact locality. That it could be no +great distance from the city of New York, if not within its limits, I +felt assured, from the expedition with which my transit from the ship +had been effected. + +During the first three weeks of my confinement the deep silence that +prevailed about me had led me to adopt the opinion that I was the +occupant of a _maison de sante_. I had once driven past one on Staten +Island, where a friend of my father's--about whose condition he came to +inquire personally--had been immured for years. I did not alight with +him when he left the carriage to make these inquiries, but I perfectly +remembered the old gray stone building, with its ancient elms, and the +impression of gloom and awe it had left on my mind. But this idea was +presently dispelled. + +I was awakened one morning, in the fourth week of my sojourn in +captivity, by the sound of chimes long familiar to my ear, the duplicate +of which I had not supposed to be in existence. At first I feared it was +some mirage of the ear, so to speak, instead of eye, that reflected back +that fairy melody, which had rung its accompaniment to my whole +childhood and youth; but, when, after the lapse of seven days, it was +repeated, I became convinced that its reality was unquestionable, and +that neither impatience nor indignation had so impaired my senses as to +reproduce those sounds through the medium of a fevered imagination. + +Were these delicious bells, a recent addition to the cupola of our grim +asylum, bestowed by some benevolent hand that sought to mark and lend +enchantment to the holy Sabbath-day--even for the sake of the +irresponsible ones within its walls--or was I indeed--? But of this +there could be no question--I dared not hazard such conjecture lest it +drive me mad in reality--I must not! + +I groped in thick darkness, and time itself was only measured now by +those sweet chimes, so like our own, and yet so far away. My very clock +one morning was found to have stopped, and was not again repaired or set +in motion. Papers I never saw, had never seen since I came to dwell in +shadow, save that single one so ostentatiously spread before me, +announcing the loss of the Kosciusko and her passengers--a refinement of +cruelty, on the part of those who sent it, worthy of a Japanese. + +Rafts had been launched and lost, the survivors stated (the men who had +seized the long-boat, to the exclusion of the women and children); the +sea had swallowed all the remainder. A later statement might refute the +first, but even then none could know the truth with regard to my +identity, for would not Basil Bainrothe control the publication as he +pleased, and make me dead if he listed--dead even after the rescue? + +Yet Hope would sometimes whisper in her daring moods; "All this shall +pass away, and be as it had not been. Be of good heart, Miriam, and do +not let them kill you; live for Mabel--live for Wentworth!" + +Then, with bowed head, and silent, streaming tears, my soul would climb +in prayer to the footstool of the Most High, and the grace, which had +never come to me before, fell over me like a mantle in this sad +extremity. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +Unfaltering in her respectful demeanor toward me was Mrs. Clayton from +the time of the little scene I have recently described. What new and +sudden light had broken in upon her I never knew, but I supposed at the +time that the flash of conviction had gone home to her mind with regard +to the baseness of Bainrothe and the iniquity of his proceedings, +founded on the fear I had expressed of his solitary presence, and the +insight she had gained into my character. + +Watching none the less strictly, she gradually relaxed that personal +surveillance that is ever so intolerable to the proud and +delicate-minded, and those suggestions that, however well intended, had +been so irritating to me from such a source. She no longer urged me to +read, or sew, or eat, or take exercise; but, retiring into her own work +(whence she could observe me at her pleasure, for her door was always +set wide open, and her face turned in my direction), she employed or +feigned to employ herself in her inexhaustible stocking-basket or +scollop-work, either one the last resource of idiocy, as it seemed to +me. + +Left thus to myself in some degree, I unclosed the leaves of the +bookcase, and surveyed its grim array of "classics"--all new and +unmarked by any name, or sign of having been read--and from them I +selected a few worthies, through whose pages I delved drearily and +industriously, and most unprofitably it must be confessed. The only +living sensations I received from the contents of that bookcase were, I +am ashamed to acknowledge, from a few odd volumes of memoirs, and +collections of travels that I had happened to find stowed away behind +the others. The rest seemed sermons from the stars. + +Captain Cook's voyages and LeVaillant's descriptions did stir me very +slightly with their strong reality, and make me for a few hours forget +myself and my captivity; but all the rest prated at me like parrots, +from stately, pragmatical Johnson down to sentimental, maudlin Sterne. + +I found them intolerable in the mood in which I was, nothing so +exhausting as the abstract! and closed the book desperately to resume my +diary, neglected since the awful events of Beauseincourt, but always to +me a resource in time of trouble and of solitude. Of pens, ink, paper, +there was no lack, and I wrote one day, Penelope-wise, what I destroyed +the next. Yet this very "jotting down" impressed upon my brain the few +incidents of my prison-house recorded here, that might otherwise have +faded from my memory in the twilight of monotony. + +I had no need to sew. Fair linen and a sufficiency of other plain +wearing-apparel, including summer gowns, I found laid carefully in my +drawers, and the creole negress brought in my clothes well ironed and +carefully mended, to be laid away by the orderly hands of Mrs. Clayton. + +Once, during the temporary illness of this dragon (whose bed or lair was +placed absolutely across the door of egress from her closet, so as to +block the way or make it difficult of access), the creole, in an +unavoidable contingency like this, came with a pile of clothing in her +arms to lay the pieces herself in the bureau, by direction of my jailer, +and thus revealed herself. + +By the merest accident I had found in the lining of my purse two pieces +of gold (the rest of my money had been spirited away with the belt that +contained it, or the leather had been destroyed by the action of the +saltwater), and one of these I hastened to bestow on the attendant, +signifying silence by a gesture as I did so. + +I knew this wretch to be wholly selfish and mercenary, from my +experience of her on the raft--for that she was the same negress I had +long ceased to doubt--and I determined, while I had an opportunity of +doing so, to enter a wedge of confidence between us in the only possible +way. + +"Sabra," I whispered, "what became of the young girl, Ada Lee, and the +deformed child? It surely can do no harm to tell me this, and I know you +understand me perfectly." + +"No, honey, sartinly not; 'sides, I is tired out of speakin' Spanish," +in low, mumbling accents. "Well, den, dat young gal gone to 'tend on +Mrs. Raymond, and, as fur de chile, dey pays me to take kear of dat in +dis very house ware you is disposed of. Dat boy gits me a heap of +trouble and onrest of nights, dough, I tells you, honey; but I is well +paid, and dey all has der reasons for letting him stay here, I +spec'"--shaking her head sagaciously--"dough dey may be disappinted yit, +when de time comes to testify and swar! De biggest price will carry de +day den, chile; I tells you all," eying the gold held closely in her +palm. + +I caught eagerly at the idea of the child's presence, though the rest +was Greek to my comprehension until long afterward, when, in untangling +a chain of iniquity difficult to match, it formed one important but +additional link. + +"Poor little Ernie! I would give so much to see him," I said. "Ask Dr. +Englehart to let him come to see me, Sabra, and some day I will reward +you"--all this in the faintest whisper. "But Mrs. Raymond--where is she? +Does she never come here? I desire earnestly to speak with her. Can't +you let her know this? Try, Sabra, for humanity's sake." + +At this juncture the head of Mrs. Clayton was thrust forth from its +shell, turtle-wise, and appeared peering at the door-cheek. + +"You have been there long enough to make these clothes instead of +putting them away, old woman," was the sharp rebuke that startled the +pretended Dinah to a condition of bustling agitation, and induced her to +shut up one of her own shrivelled hands in closing the drawer, with a +force that made her cry aloud, and, when released, wring it with agony, +that drew some words in the vernacular. "What makes you suppose Miss +Monfort wants to hear your chattering, old magpie that you are?" +continued Mrs. Clayton, throwing off her mask. "Now walk very straight, +or the police shall have you next time you steal from a companion. +Remember who rescued you on the Latona, and on what conditions, and take +care how you conduct yourself in the future. Do you understand me?" + +After this tirade, which sorely exhausted her, Mrs. Clayton relapsed +into silence; and now it was my time to speak and even scold. I said: + +"Now that the Spanish farce is thrown aside, it is hard indeed that I +cannot even be allowed to exchange a few words with a laundress in my +solitary condition--hard that I should be pressed to the wall in this +fiendish fashion. This woman was telling me of the presence of a little +child in the house, and I have desired permission to see it by way of +diversion and occupation, I have asked her to apply to Dr. Englehart." + +"The child shall come to you, Miss Monfort, whenever you wish," said +Mrs. Clayton, with ill-disguised eagerness. "This woman is not the +proper person to apply to, however, and it is natural you should feel +concerned about it, now that you are able to think and feel again. You +know, of course, it is the boy of the wreck." + +"Yes, very natural. Its mother died in my arms, if I am not mistaken in +the identity of the child; and fortunately--" I paused here, arrested by +some strange instinct of prudence, and decided not to show further +interest in his fate. + +He might be inquired for, and traced even, I reflected, and thus my own +existence be brought to light. Selfishly, as well as charitably, would I +cherish him. Little children had ever been a passion with me, but this +poor, repulsive thing was the "_dernier ressort_ of desolation." + +That very evening I heard the husky and guttural voice of Dr. Englehart +in the adjoining chamber, or rather in the closet of Mrs. Clayton, a +mere anteroom originally, as it seemed, to the large apartment I +occupied. + +It was very natural that in her ill condition my dragon should seek +medical aid, and I paid no further attention to the propinquity of this +unpleasant visitor than I could help--sitting quietly by my shaded lamp, +absorbed in the Psalter, in which I found nightly refuge. + +He came in at last, after tapping very lightly on the door-panel, +unsolicited and unexpected, to my presence--the same inscrutable, +hirsute horror I had seen before, with his trudging, scraping walk, his +square and stalwart frame, his gloved extremities, his light, +blue-glasses, hat and cane in hand, a being as I felt to chill one's +very marrow. + +"Is it true vat I hear," he asked, pausing at some distance, "dat you +vant to have dat leetle hompback chilt for a companion, Miss Monfort?" + +"It is true, Dr. Englehart." + +"And vat can your motif be? Heh? I must study dat for a leetle before I +can decide de question, or even trost him as a human being in your +hands." + +"Lunatics are rarely governed by motives at all," I replied, "only +impulses. I want human companionship, however, that is all. I sicken in +this solitude--I am dying of mental inanition." + +"It is true, you look delicate indeed, I am pained to see." The accent, +was forgotten here for a moment, and an expression of real sympathy was +perceivable in his low, husky voice. "Command me in any way dat accords +wid my duty," he continued, "yes! de boy shall come! To interest, to +amuse you, is perhaps--to cure!" + +"Thank you; I shall await his advent anxiously; be careful not to +disappoint me." + +"Oh, not for vorlds!" + +"You are very kind; I believe, though, that is all we have to say to one +another, Dr. Englehart." + +"You are bettair, then?" he said, advancing steadily toward me in spite +of this dismissal. "You need no more leetle pill? Are you quite sure of +dat?" + +"Not now, at least, Dr. Englehart." + +"Permit me, then, to feel your pulse vonce more. I shall determine den +more perfectly dis vexing subject of your sanity." + +"Thank you; I decline your opinion on a matter so little open to +difference. Be good enough to retire, Dr. Englehart. Let me at least +breathe freely in the solitude to which I am consigned." + +"I mean no offence, yonge lady," he said, meekly, falling back to the +centre-table on which was burning my shaded astral lamp--for I had left +it as he approached, instinctively to seek the protection of an +interposing chair, on the back of which I stood leaning as I spoke. + +He, too, remained standing, with one hand pressed firmly backward on the +top of the table, in front of which he poised himself, gesticulating +earnestly yet respectfully. + +His position was an error of mistaken confidence in his own make-up, +such as we see occur every day among those even long habituated to +disguise. + +As he stood I distinctly saw a line of light traced between his cheek +and one of his bushy side-whiskers. + +That line of light let in a flood of evidence. The man was an impostor, +a tool, as criminal as his employer--not the footprint on the sand was +more suggestive to Robinson Crusoe than that luminous streak to me, nor +the cause of wilder conjecture. + +Yet I betrayed nothing of my amazement I am convinced, for, after +standing silently for a time and almost in a suppliant attitude before +me, Dr. Englehart departed, and for many days I saw him not again. + +An object that looked not unlike a small, solemn owl, stood in the +middle of the floor, regarding me silently when I awoke very early on +the following morning. + +At a glance I recognized poor little Ernie, and singularly enough, he +knew and remembered me at once. + +"Ernie good boy now," he said as he came toward me with his tiny claw +extended. "Lady got cake in pocket, give Ernie some?" Not only did he +recall me, it was plain, but the incident that saved his life, and the +rebukes he had received on the raft for his refusal to partake of briny +biscuit, which no persuasion, it may be remembered, had availed to make +him taste--even when devoured by the pangs of hunger. I tried in vain, +however, to recall him to some remembrance of his poor mother. On that +point he was invulnerable; the abstract had no charm for him or meaning. +He dealt only in realities and presences. + +A new element was infused into my solitude from this time. In this child +I lived, breathed, and had my being, until later events startled my +individuality once more into its old currents of existence. Not that I +merged myself entirely in Ernie, sickly, wayward, fitful, ugly little +mite that he was undeniably. Nay, rather did I draw him forcibly into my +own sphere of being and find nutrition in this novel element. + +So grudgingly had Nature fulfilled her obligations in the case of this +poor stunted infant, that, at two and a half years of age, he had not +the usual complement of teeth due a child of eighteen months, and was +suffering sorely from the pointing up of tardy stomach-teeth through +ulcerated gums. + +To attend to and heal his bodily ailments occupied me entirely at first, +and finally, finding him ill cared for, I made him a little pallet on my +sofa and kept him with me by night and day. Surely such devotion as he +manifested in return for my scant kindness to him few mothers have +received from their offspring. To sit silently at my feet while I talked +to him, or do my bidding, seemed his chief pleasures, as they might not, +could not have been, had he been strong, and active, and more soundly +constituted. As it was, no more loyal creature existed, nor did the +Creator ever enshrine deeper affections or quicker perceptions in any +childish frame. Weird, and wise, and witty as AEsop was this child, like +him deformed; and to draw out his quaint remarks, read him fresh from +his Maker's hand--this warped, and tiny, imperfect volume of +humanity--was to me an ever-new puzzle and delight. Severity he had been +used to of late, I saw plainly. He shrank with winking eyes from an +uplifted hand, even if the gesture were one of mere amazement, or +affection, and sat patiently, like a little well-trained dog, when he +saw food placed before me, until invited to partake thereof. His manner +was wistful and deprecating even to pathos, and I longed for one burst +of passion, one evidence of self-will, to prove to myself that I, like +others he had been recently thrown with, was not the meanest of all +created creatures--a baby's despot! + +Oh, better than this the cap and bells, and infant tyranny forever, and +the wildest freaks of baby folly. He suffered silently, as I have seen +no other child do, uncomplainingly even, and at such times would sink +into moods of the blackest gloom, like those of an old, gouty subject. +Hypochondria, baby as he was, seemed already to have fixed his fangs +upon him. He had days of profound melancholy, when nothing provoked a +smile, and others of bitter, silent fretting, inconceivably distressing; +again there were periods of the wildest joy, only restrained by that +reticence which had become habitual, from positive boisterousness. + +All this I could have compelled into subservience, of course, by +substituting fear for affection. It is not a difficult matter for the +strong and cunning to cow and crush the spirit of a little child; no +great achievement, after all, nor proof of power, though many boast of +it as such. Strength and hardness of heart are all one requires for +this external victory; but human souls are not to be so governed (God be +praised for this!), and love and respect are not to be compelled. + +It is the error of all errors to suppose that, because a child has a +sickly frame or imperfect animal organization, it is just or profitable +to give it over to its own devices, and consign it to indolence and +ignorance. Alas! the vacancy that begets fretfulness, and crude, +capricious desires, the confusion of images that arises from partial +understanding, are far more wearing to the nerves of an intelligent +infant than the small labor the brain undertakes, if any, indeed, be +needed, in mastering ideas properly presented, and suitable to the +condition of the sufferer. One might as well forbid the hand to grasp, +the eye to see, nay, more, it will not do to confound the child of +genius with the fool, or to suppose that the one needs not a mental +aliment of which the other is incapable. Feed well the hungry mind, lest +it perish of inanition. It is a sponge in infancy that imbibes ideas +without an effort; it is a safety-valve through which fancy and poetry +conduct away foul vapors; it is an alembic, retaining only the pure and +valuable of all that is poured into it, to be stored for future use. It +is a lightning-rod that conducts away from the body all superfluous +electricity. It does not harm a sensible child to put it to study early, +but it destroys a dull one. Let your poor soil lie fallow, but harvest +your rich mould, and you shall be repaid, without harm to its fertility. + +Ideas were balm to Ernie, even as regarded his physical suffering. His +enthusiasm rose above it and carried him to other spheres. + +Some illustrated volumes of "Wilson's Ornithology," which I found in +the bookcase, proved to be oil on troubled waters in Ernie's case; and +before long he knew, without an effort, the name of every bird in the +two folios of prints, and would come of his own accord to repeat and +point them out to me. + +I found, to my amazement, that, when a cage of canaries was brought in +and hung in the bath-room at my request for his amusement, he +discriminated and gravely averred that no birds like those were to be +found in his big book, though yellow hammers and orioles were there in +their native colors, that might have deceived a less observant eye into +a delusion as to their identity with our pretty importation. + +Verses, remarkable for rhyme and rhythm both, when repeated to him a few +times with scanning emphasis, took root in that fertile brain which +piled his compact forehead so powerfully above his piercing, deep-set +eyes, and fell from his infant lips in silvery melody as effortless and +spontaneous as the trickling of water or the singing of birds in the +trees. + +Day by day I saw the little, wistful face relaxing from the hard-knot +expression, so to speak, of sour and serious suffering, and assuming +something akin to baby joyousness, and the small, warped figure, so low +that it walked under my dropped and level hand, acquiring security of +step and erectness of bearing. I knew little of the treatment required +for spinal disease, but common-sense taught me that, in order to effect +a cure, the vertebral column must be relieved as much as possible from +pressure, and allowed to rest. So I persuaded him to lie down a great +part of the time, and contrived for him a little sustaining brace to +relieve him when he walked. + +I fed him carefully; I bathed him tenderly, and robbed his weary, +aching limbs to rest, so that before many weeks the change was +surprising, and the success of my treatment evident to all who saw +him--the comprehensive "all" being myself and two attendants. + +Dr. Englehart had been suggested in the beginning by Mrs. Clayton, as +his medical attendant, but rejected by me with a shudder, that seemed +conclusive; yet one evening, unsummoned by me, and as far as I knew by +any other, he walked calmly into my apartment, ostensibly to see the +little invalid--his charge as well as mine. + +For a moment the extravagant idea possessed me that, in spite of +appearances, I had done this man injustice, and that he came in reality +for humane purposes alone; wore his disguise for these. + +This delusion was soon dissipated, as with audacity (no doubt +characteristic, though not before evidenced to me), he seated himself +complacently and uninvited, and, disposing of his hat and stick, settled +himself down for a _tete-a-tete_, an affair which, if medical, usually +partakes of the confidential. + +"Your little _protege_, Miss Monfort," he said, huskily, "seems to be a +serious sufferer," and for a moment dropping his accent while he rubbed +his gloved hands together as with an ill-repressed self-gratification; +"come, tell me now what you are doing for his benefit," again +artistically assuming a foreign accentuation. + +In a few words I described my course of treatment and its success. + +"All very well," he responded, hoarsely, "as far as it goes; but I am +convinced that much severer treatment will he necessaire--" + +"I think not," I replied, curtly; "and certainly nothing of the kind +will be permitted by me while I have charge of this poor infant." + +"A few leetle pills, then, for both mother and child;" he suggested, +humbly. + +"You are mistaken if you imagine any relationship to exist between Ernie +and myself," I answered, calmly, never dreaming at the moment of covert +or intended insult. "I might as well inform you at once, that I am Miss, +not Mrs. Monfort; you should he guarded how you make mistakes of that +nature." + +And my eye flashed fire, I felt, for I now heard him chuckling low in +the shadow, in which he so carefully concealed himself. + +"I shall remembair vat you say," he observed, "and try to do bettair +next visit; but all dis time I delay in de execution of my mission here. +See, I have brought you von lettair; now vat will you do to reward me?" + +Holding it high above my head, in a manner meant, no doubt, to be +playful, and to suggest a game of snatch, perhaps, such as his peers +might have afforded him, he displayed his treasure to my longing eyes, +"but I sat with folded arms. + +"If the letter brings me good news, I shall thank you warmly, Dr. +Englehart; if not, I shall try to believe you unconscious of its +contents." + +"Tanks from your lips would, indeed, seem priceless," he remarked, +courteously, as with many bows and shrugs he laid it on the table before +me, bringing his shaggy head by such means much closer to my hand than I +cared to know it should be, under any circumstances. + +With a gesture of inexpressible disgust, regretted the next moment, as I +reflected that, to bring me this letter, he might be overstepping common +rules, I raised the envelope to the light and recognized, to my intense +disappointment, the well-known characters of Bainrothe's--small, rigid, +neat, constrained. + +My heart, which a moment before had beat audibly to my own ear, sank +like a stone in my breast, and I sat for a time holding the letter +mutely, uncertain how to proceed. Should I return it unread, and thus +hurl the gauntlet in the traitor's face, or be governed by expedience +(word ever so despised by me of old), and trace the venom of the viper, +by his trail, back to his native den? + +After a brief conflict of feeling, I determined on the wiser +course--that of self-humiliation as a measure of profound policy. + +I broke the seal, the well-known "dove-and-vulture" effigy which he +called in heraldry "The quarry" and claimed as his rightful crest. Very +significantly, indeed, did it strike me now, though I had jested on the +subject so merrily of old with Evelyn and George Gaston. + +The letter was of very recent date, and ran as follows--I have the +original still, and this is an exact copy: + +"On September 1st, or as soon thereafter as feasible, I shall call to +see you, Miriam, in your retirement, which I am glad to hear has so far +been beneficial. Should I find you in a condition to _make_ conditions, +I shall lay before you a very advantageous offer of marriage I had +received for you before your shipwreck. Should you accept this offer, +and attach your signature to a few papers that I shall bring with me +(papers important to the respectability of your whole family as well as +my own), I shall at once resign to you your father's house and the +guardianship of Mabel. The chimera that alarmed you to frenzy can have +no further existence, either in fact or fancy. I am about to contract an +advantageous marriage with a foreign lady of rank, wealth, and beauty, +to whom I hope soon to introduce you. I need not mention her name, if +you are wise. Be patient and cheerful; cultivate your talents, and take +care of your good looks--no woman can afford to dispense with these, +however gifted; and you will soon find yourself as free as that +'chartered libertine' the air, for which last two words I am afraid you +will be malicious enough to substitute the name you will not find +appended, of your true friend and guardian, B.B." + +Had Wentworth spoken, then? Did he know of my immurement? Was it his +beloved presence, his dear hand, that were to be made the prize of my +silence and submission? Was the bitter pill of humiliation I was now +swallowing to be gilded thus? No, no--a thousand times, no! He was not +the man with whom to make such conditions--the man I loved--nay +worshiped almost. He was of the old heroic mould, that would have +preferred any certainty to suspense, and death itself to an instant's +degradation. + +He deemed me dead, and the obstacle that had risen between us needed no +explanation now. The waves had swallowed all necessities like this. But, +had he known me the inmate of a mad-house, no bolts or bars would have +withheld him from my presence. His own eyes could alone have convinced +him of such ruin as was alleged against me by these friends. + +From this survey of my utter helplessness I turned suddenly to confront +the deep, dark, salient eyes of the disciple of Hahnemann, real or +pretended, fixed upon me with a glance that even his blue spectacles +could not deprive of its subtle intensity. + +Where had I seen before orbs of the same snake-like peculiarity of +expression, or caught the outline of the profile which suddenly riveted +my gaze as the light partially revealed it, then subsided into shadow +again! I pondered this question for a moment while Dr. Englehart, +silent, expectant perhaps, stood with his hand tightly grasping the back +of a chair, on the seat of which he reposed one knee, in a position such +as defiant school-boys often assume before a pedagogue. + +As I have said, his head and body were again in shadow, as was, indeed, +most of the chamber, for the rays which struggled through the thick +ground glass of my astral lamp were as mild as moonbeams, and as +unsatisfactory. But the light fell strong and red beneath the shade, and +the full glare of the astral lamp seemed centred on that pudgy hand, in +its inevitable glove, that had fixed so firm a gripe on the back of the +mahogany chair as to strain open one of the fingers of the tight, tawny +kid-glove worn by Dr. Englehart. This had parted slightly just above the +knuckle of the front-finger, and revealed the cotton stuffing within. +Nay, more, the ruby ring with its peculiar device was thus exposed, +which graced the slender finger of the charlatan! I do not apply this +term as concerned the profession he affected at all, but merely (as +shall be seen later) as one appropriate to himself individually. + +There must be beings of all kinds to constitute a world, philosophers +tell us, and he, no doubt, so long in ignorance of it, had stumbled +suddenly on his proper vocation at last. The _role_ he was playing (so +far successfully) had doubtless been the occasion of an exquisite +delight to him, unknown to simpler mortals, who masquerade not without +dread misgivings of detection. I for one, when affecting any costume not +essentially belonging to me, or covering my face even with a paper-mask +for holiday diversion, have had a feeling of unusual transparency and +obviousness, so to speak, which precluded on my part every thing like a +successful maintenance of the part I was attempting to play. It was as +if some mocking voice was saying: "This is Miriam Monfort, the true +Miriam; the person you have known before as such was only making +believe--but the Simon-pure is before you, a volume of folly that all +who run may read! Behold her--she was never half so evident before!" + +But to digress thus in the very moment of detection, of recognition, +seems irrelevant. The flash of conviction was as instantaneous in its +action in my mind as that of the lightning when it strikes its object. I +stood confounded, yet enlightened, all ablaze!--but the subject of this +discovery did not seem in the least to apprehend it, or to believe it +possible, in his mad, mole-like effrontery of self-sufficiency, that by +his own track he could be betrayed. + +"Vat ansair shall I bear to Mr. Bainrothe from his vard?" asked the +Mercury of my Jove, clasping his costumed hands together, then dropping +them meekly before him. "I vait de reply of Miss Monfort vid patience. +Dere is pen, and ink, and papair, I perceive, on dat table. Be good +enough to write at once your reply to de vise conditions of your +excellent guardian." + +"You know them, then?" I said, quickly, glancing at him with a derisive +scorn that did not escape his observation. + +"I have dat honnair," was the hypocritical reply, accompanied by a +profound bow. + +"Disgrace, rather," I substituted. "But you have your own stand-point of +view, of course. The shield that to you is white, to me is black as +Erebus. You remember the knights of fable?" + +"Always the same--always indomitable!" I heard him murmur, so low that +it was marvelous how the words reached my ear, tense as was every sense +with disdainful excitement. Yet he simply said aloud, after his +impulsive stage-whisper: "Excuse me! I understand not your allusions. I +pretend not to de classics; my leetle pills--" and he hesitated, or +affected to do so. + +"Enough--I waive all apologies; they only prolong an interview +singularly distasteful to me for many reasons. You are behind the +curtain, I cannot doubt, and understand not only the contents of that +absurd letter, but its unprincipled references. To Basil Bainrothe I +will never address one line; but you may say to him that I scorn him and +his conditions. Yet, helpless as I am, and in his hands, tell him to +bring his emancipation papers, and I will sign them, though they cost me +all I possess of property. My sister I will not surrender any longer to +his care, nor my right in her, which, with or without his consent, is +perfect when I reach my majority. As to the suitor to whom he alluded, +he had better be allowed to speak for himself when this transaction is +over. I shall then decide very calmly on his merits, tarnished, as these +might seem, from such recommendation." + +"He is one who has loved you long, lady," said the man, sadly, speaking +ever in that made and husky voice (wonderful actor that he was by +nature!), which he sustained so well that, had I not unmistakably +identified him, it might have imposed on my ear as real. "Hear what has +been written on this subject: When others have forsaken you and left you +to your fate, he has continued faithful to your memory. The revelation +of your immurement was made simultaneously to two men who called +themselves your lovers, and its sad necessity explained by your +ever-watchful guardian. One of these lovers repudiated your claims upon +him, and turned coldly from the idea of uniting his fate to that of one +who had even for an hour been a suspected lunatic; the other declared +himself willing to take her as she was to his arms, even though her own +were loaded with the chains of a mad-house! Penniless and abandoned by +all the world, and with a clouded name, he woos her as his wife--the +woman he adores!" + +And, as he read, or seemed to read, these words, with scarce an accent +to mar their impetuous flow, Dr. Englehart drew in his breath with the +hissing sound of passion, and folded his arms tightly across his padded +breast, as if they enfolded the bride he was suing for in another's +name. + +"And who, let me ask, is this Paladin of chivalry?" I inquired, +derisively. "Give me his name, that I may consider the subject well and +thoroughly before we meet at last." + +"Excuse me if I refuse to give the name of eider of dese gentlemen at +dis onhappy season," he rejoined. "Wen de brain is all right +again"--tapping his own forehead--"your guardian will conduct the +faithful knight to kneel at de feet of her he loves so well." + +"And the other--where is he?" fell involuntarily from my lips--my +heaving heart--an inquiry that I regretted as soon as it was uttered; +for, affecting sorrowful mystery, the man inclined himself toward me and +whispered in my ear confidentially: + +"Plighted to another, and gone where no eyes of yours shall rest on him +again." + +"Pander--liar--spy!" burst from my passionate lips as in all the fury of +desperation I turned from the creature who had so wantonly wounded my +self-respect, and waved to him to begone. Another name quivered on my +lips, but I checked it on their threshold after that first burst of +indignation instantly subdued. + +I was not brave enough nor strong enough to hazard a shaft like that +which might have been returned to me so deathfully. I would let the +barrier stand which he had erected between us, and which to demolish +would be to lay myself open, perhaps, to insult of the darkest +description. + +Let the ostrich with his head in the sand still imagine himself unseen; +the masquerader still conceive himself secure beneath his paper +travesty; the serpent still coil apparently unrecognized beside the +bare, gray stone that reveals him to the eye--I was too cowardly, too +feeble, to cope with strategy and double-dyed duplicity like this! + +So the man went his way with his silly secret undiscovered, as he +deemed, and that it might remain so to the end, as far as he could know, +I devoutly prayed. For I knew of old the unscrupulous lengths to which, +when nerved by hate or disappointment or passions of any kind, he could +go, without a particle of mercy for his victims or remorse for his +ill-doing. + +When Dr. Englehart was gone--for so I still choose to call him for some +reasons, although I give my reader credit for still more astuteness than +I possessed myself, and believe that he has long ago recognized, through +this cloud of mystery and travesty thrown about him, an old +acquaintance--the child Ernie rose from the bed on which he had lain +tremulous and observant, with his small hands clinched, his eyes on +fire. "Ernie kill bad man!" he exclaimed, ferociously, "for trouble +missy. Give Ernie letter--he carry it away and hide it; bad letter--make +poor Mirry cry." + +"No, Ernie, I will keep it," I said, as I laid it carefully aside. "It +shall stand as a sign and testimony of treachery to the end. Go to +sleep, little child; but first say your prayers, so that the good angels +may sit by you all night. Don't you hear Mrs. Clayton groaning? Poor +Clayton! I most go and comfort her and soothe her pains, as Dinah cannot +do. And, now that the bad doctor is gone home, and we are all locked up +again securely, we shall rest peacefully, I trust; and so, good-night!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +From being the most silent of children, a perfect creep-mouse in every +way, Ernie had become fearfully loquacious under my care, and was now as +talkative as he had ever been observant. + +The action that most children develop through exercise of limb had been +reserved for his untiring tongue. He had literally learned to talk from +hearing me read aloud, which I did daily, much to Mrs. Clayton's delight +and edification, for the benefit of my own lungs, which suffered from +such confirmed silence, as I had at first indulged in. His exquisite +ear--his prodigious memory--aided him in the acquirement of words, and +even long and difficult sentences, of which he delivered himself +oracularly when engaged with his blocks and dominoes. + +He told himself wonderful stories in which the "buful faiwry" and +"hollible" giant of the story-books figured largely. I am almost ashamed +to acknowledge that I would hold my breath and strain my ear at times to +listen to these murmured stories, self-addressed, as I have never done +to receive the finest ebullitions of eloquence or the veriest marvels of +the _raconteur_. There was something so sweet, so wondrous to me in this +little, ever-babbling baby-brain fountain, content with its own music, +having no thought of auditors or effect, no care for appreciation, +totally self-addressed and self-absorbed, that I was never weary of +giving it my ear and interest. Had the child known of or perceived this, +the effect would have been destroyed, and a fatal self-consciousness +have been instituted instead of this lotus-eating infantile +_abandon_--the very existence of which mood indicated genius. What poor +Ernie's father might nave been I could only surmise from his own +qualities, which, after all, may have flowed from a far-off source; but +that his mother had been gentle, simple, and inefficient, I knew full +well, from my slight acquaintance with her, and observation of her +non-resisting organization. Ernie, on the contrary, grappled with +obstacles uncomplainingly, and was only outspoken in his moments of +gratification. His was the temperament that is the noblest and the most +magnanimous in its very moulding. Whining children are selfish, as a +rule, and petty-minded, and most often incapable of enjoyment--which +last is a gift of itself that goes not always with possession. + +Among other accomplishments self-acquired, Ernie had the power of +mimicry to a singular degree. Mrs. Clayton had a slight hitch in her +gait of late from rheumatic suffering, which he simulated solemnly, +notwithstanding every effort on my part to restrain him. + +Without a smile or any effort of mirth, he would limp behind as she +walked across the floor, unconscious of his close attendance, and when +she would turn suddenly and detect him, and shake her clinched fist at +him, half in jest, he would retaliate by a similar gesture, and scowl, +and stamp of the foot, that so nearly resembled her own proceedings as +to cause me much internal merriment. But of course for his own +advantage, as well as from regard for her feelings, it was necessary for +me on such occasions to assume a gravity of deportment bordering on +displeasure. + +It may be supposed, then, that when, on the morning after Dr. +Englehart's visit, before my chamber had been swept and garnished, and +while Mrs. Clayton was busy in her own, Ernie brought me a letter and +laid it on the table before me, as Dr. Englehart had done the night +before in his presence, I was infinitely amused. + +What, then, was my surprise in stooping over it to find this letter +addressed to myself in the unfamiliar yet never-to-be-forgotten +character of Wardour Wentworth! + +After the first moment of bewilderment I opened the already-fastened +letter--closed, as was the fashion of the day, without envelope, and +sealed originally with wax, of which a few fragments still remained +alone. + +The date, the subject, the earnest contents, convinced me that I now +held the clew of that mystery which had baffled me so long, and that the +missing letter said to have been lost at Le Noir's Landing was at last +in my possession. It needed not this additional proof of treachery to +convince me that my suspicions had been correct, and that, next to the +arch-fiend Bainrothe, I owed the greatest misery of my life to him who, +in his ill-adjusted disguise, had dropped this letter from his pocket on +the preceding evening--my evil genius, Dr. Englehart--_alias_ Luke +Gregory. + +It was a gracious thing in God to permit me to owe the great happiness +of this discovery to the little crippled child he had cast upon my care +so mysteriously, and I failed not to render to him with other grateful +acknowledgments "most humble and hearty thanks" for this crowning grace. +Henceforth Hope should lend her torch to light my dearth--her wings to +bear me up--her anchor wherewith to moor my bark of life wherever cast, +and to the poor waif I cherished I owed this immeasurable good. Had Mrs. +Clayton anticipated him with her infallible besom--that housewifely +detective, that drags more secrets to light than ever did paid +policeman--I should never have grasped this talisman of love and hope, +never have waked up as I did wake up from that hour to the endurance +which immortalizes endeavor, and renders patience almost pleasurable. + +On the back of this well-worn letter was a pencil-scrawl, which, +although I read it last, I present first to my reader, that he may trace +link by link the chain of villainy that bound together my two +oppressors. + +It was in the small, clear calligraphy of Basil Bainrothe, before +described; characterized, I believe, as a backhand--and thus it ran: + + "You are right--it was a master-stroke! Keep them in ignorance + of each other, and all will yet go well. I sail to-morrow, and + have only time to inclose this with a pencilled line. Try and + head them at New York. My first idea was the best--my reason I + will explain later. + + "Yours truly, + + "B.B. + + "N.B.--The man could not have played into our hands better than + by taking up such an impression. There is no one there to + undeceive him." + + THE LETTER. + + "My Miriam: Your note, through the hands of Mr. Gregory, has + been received--read, noted, pondered over with pain and + amazement. The avowal of your name so uselessly withheld from + me, lets in a whole flood of light, blinding and dazzling, too, + on a subject that fills me with infinite solicitude. + + "There have been strange reserves between us that never ought to + have existed, on my part as well as yours. I should have told + you that I once had a half-sister, called Constance Glen--older + than myself by many years--who married during my long absence + from our native land a gentleman much older than herself, an + Englishman by the name of Monfort, and, after giving birth to a + daughter, died suddenly. These particulars I gathered from + strangers, but there were many wanting which you can best + supply. I know that this gentleman had a daughter, or daughters, + by an earlier marriage--and I can find no clew to the date of my + sister's marriage--which might in itself determine the possible + age of her own daughter. That this child survived I have painful + cause to remember. I had sustained shipwreck, and was in + abeyance for clothes and money both, when it occurred to me to + call on my brother-in-law, present to him my credentials, and + remain a few days at his house as his guest, in the enjoyment of + my sister's society, until my needs could be supplied from + certain resources at a distance. The reception I met with from + his elder daughter, and the information she haughtily gave me, + determined my course. I sought no more the inhospitable roof of + Mr. Monfort, to find shelter beneath which I had forfeited all + claim by the death of my sister, then first suddenly revealed to + me. Her child, I was told, had been recently injured by burning + and could not be seen, even by so near a relative, and the + manner of the young lady, whom I now identify as Evelyn Monfort, + was such as to lead me at the time to believe this a mere excuse + or evasion, which I did not seek to oppose. + + "It is just possible that there may be a third sister, yet I + think I have heard you say you had but one, and this + reminiscence is anguish to my mind. Even more, the careless and + unwarrantable allusions of Mr. Gregory to certain scars, + evidently from burns that he had the insolence to observe on + your neck and arms, and remark upon as mere foils to their + beauty, in my first acquaintance with you and before I had a + right to silence him, recurred to me as a partial confirmation + of my fears. Without explaining to him my motives, I questioned + him on this subject again soon after he handed me your note, a + proceeding that I should have shrunk from as gross and unworthy + of a gentleman under any other circumstances. I did not stop to + think what impression my inquiries would leave upon his mind, + ever prone to levity and suspicion; but he must have seen that I + was deeply moved, and that no impertinent curiosity could sway + me to such a course with regard to the woman I loved and had + openly declared my plighted wife. You will understand all this + and make allowance for me. Write to me immediately, and relieve, + if possible, my intense solicitude. At all events, let me know + the truth, and look it in the face as soon as may be. Any + reality is better than suspense. Yet I must 'hope against hope,' + or surrender wholly. I have not time to write another line. My + business is imperative, or I should certainly retrace my steps. + + "Yours eternally, + + "WENTWORTH." + +The man who wrote this letter was capable of condensing in a few calm +words a world of passion, whether he spoke or wrote them; but he had +governed his pen carefully in his agonizing uncertainty. It was yet to +be determined when he penned these lines whether he should be +considered a lover addressing his mistress, or an uncle writing to his +niece, and in this bitter perplexity he commanded his inclinations to +the side of principle. + +I wept with tears of joy and thankfulness above this constrained +epistle--I pressed it to my heart, my lips, a thousand times, in the +quiet hours of night, in the moments of retirement my jailer granted me. +The child Ernie alone saw and wondered at these manifestations of which +I first saw the extravagance through his solemn imitations thereof, +which yet made me catch him rapturously in my arms and kiss him a +thousand times, until he put me aside, at last, with decorous dignity, +as one transcending privilege. + +By some vicarious process, best understood by lovers, I lavished on +little Ernie a thousand terms of endearment, meant only for another, and +by the light of my own happiness he seemed transfigured. He was +identified with the lifting away of a burden more bitter than captivity +itself. They could but kill my body now--my soul was filled with a new +life that nothing could extinguish; and believing in Wentworth, I felt +that I could die happy, let death come when and how it would. I knew now +that in the course of time, whether I lived or died, Wentworth would +know that I was not his niece, and claim Mabel as his own, remembering +my estimate of those who held her in charge. Then would the tide of love +and passion, so long repressed, roll back in its old channel, and he +would leave no stone unturned, no path unexplored, whereby to trace my +fate. + +To this, as yet, he held no clew. The sea had seemed to swallow Miriam +Harz, by which name I had been registered in the ship's books and known +to the passengers; nor could it be surmised that the young "mad girl," +since spoken of, as I had been told, in the papers, as having been +restored to her friends by the accident of meeting the Latona, and +Miriam Monfort, were one and the same person. But if the time should +come when all should be explained, either by my own lips or the +revelations of others, good cause might Basil Bainrothe and his +confederate have to tremble! + +Like all cold, patient, deeply-feeling men, there were untold reserves +of power and passion in the nature of Wardour Wentworth which might, for +aught I knew to the contrary, tend naturally to and culminate in +revenge. The wish to retaliate was, I knew, a fundamental fault in my +own character, one I had often occasion to struggle with even in +childhood, when Evelyn, my despot, was also my dependant, and generosity +had been called to the aid of forbearance. Vengeance was a fierce thirst +in my Judaic heart which only Christian streams could ever allay or +quench, and I judged the man I loved by self--not always a fitting +standard of comparison. + +And Gregory! I could imagine well the fiendish delight with which he had +seen me day by day writhing uncomplainingly beneath the unexplained and +as I had deemed unsuspected alienation of Wentworth, the cause of which +his act had wrapped in mystery! Afraid to tamper with the note I gave +him for the cool, discerning eye of Wentworth, curiosity had at first +led him to break the seal of that intrusted to his care in return, and +dark malevolence to retain it rather than destroy, for the eye of his +confederate. That he had dispatched it at once for Paris was very +evident from the pencilling on the back of the letter; and that the +snare was set for me already, in which the accident of the encountered +raft proved an assistant, I could not doubt. + +I fell into the hands of Bainrothe on shipboard instead of into those of +Gregory in New York; this was the only difference, for subterfuge could +have done its work as well, if not as daringly, on land as on sea; and +the league of iniquity was made before I sailed from Savannah. + +How perfectly I could comprehend, for the first time since this +revelation, what Wentworth must have suffered beneath his burden of +unrelieved doubt and conjecture! I could see how, day by day, as no +answer came to change the current of his thoughts, conviction slowly +settled down like a cloud upon his heart, his reason; and what stern +confirmation of all he dreaded most, my silence must have seemed to him! + +All this I saw in my mental survey with pity, with concern, with wild +desire to fly to him, and whisper truth and consolation in his arms; for +I loved this man as it is given to passionate, earnest natures to love +but once, be it early or late; loved him as Eve loved Adam, when the +whole inhabited earth was given to those two alone. + +"You seem in very good spirits to-day, Miss Monfort," said Mrs. Clayton, +with unusual asperity on one occasion, when, holding Ernie in my arms, I +lavished endearments upon him; "your king, indeed! your angel! I really +believe you admire as well as love that hideous little elf." + +"Of course I do," Mrs. Clayton; "all things I love are beautiful to me;" +and I remembered how Bertie's plain face had grown into touching +loveliness in my sight from the affection I bore her. + +"And do you really love this child?" + +"Most certainly, and very tenderly too; is he not my sweetest +consolation in this dreary life?" + +"What if they remove him?" + +"Ah! what, indeed!" and, relaxing my grasp, I clasped my hands together +patiently; that thought had occurred to me before. + +"It is a very strong affection to have sprung up from a short +acquaintance on a raft," she remarked, sententiously. + +"I saved his infant life, you know; and the benefactor always loves the +thing he benefits. It is on this principle alone God loves his erring +creatures, Mrs. Clayton, rest assured." + +"If you had loved the child with true friendship, you would have pushed +him into the sea, rather than have held him in your arms above it." + +"Do you suppose he is less near to God than you or I--to Christ the +all-merciful?" I questioned, sternly. "Much rather would I have that +infant's yet unconscious hope of heaven than either yours or mine, Mrs. +Clayton!" + +"But his earthly hope--it was that I alluded to; what chance for him? +Poor, weakly, deformed; he had better be at rest than knocked from +pillar to poet, as he must be in this hard, cold world of chance and +change." + +"And that shall never be while I live, Ernie," I said, taking him again +in my lap, at his silent solicitation. "Why, Mrs. Clayton, with such a +noble soul, such intelligence as this child possesses, he may fill a +pulpit, and save erring souls, or write such beautiful poems and +romances as shall thrill the heart, or draw from an instrument sounds as +divine as De Beriot's, or paint a picture, and immortalize his name; +there is nothing too good, too great for Ernie to do, should God grant +him life to achieve; and, as surely as I am spared to be enfranchised, +shall I make this gifted child my charge." + +"You are perfectly infatuated, Miss Monfort; I declare, I shall begin to +believe--" + +"No, you shall not begin to believe any such thing," I interrupted her, +smiling; "you are surely too sensible and just a woman to begin to +believe fallacies thus late in the day." + +"Have it your own way," she said, sharply; "you always get the better of +me at last." + +"Not always," I pursued, "or I should not be here, you know. It rests +with you to keep or let me go--" + +"To ruin my child's husband! There, now! you have my life-secret," she +said, with a desperate gesture; "use it as you will." + +I understood more than ever the hopelessness of my case from the moment +of that impulsive revelation, to which I made no answer. + +"What is more," she said, huskily, "I, too, am watched; I never knew +this until two days ago: a negro man, an attendant of the house, an old +servant of your guardian's, I believe, guards the doors below, and +refuses to let me pass to and fro. Dinah, even, is employed to dog my +steps. This is not exactly what I bargained for; yet, in spite of all, +on her account I shall be faithful to the end." And for a time she +busied herself in that careful dusting of the ornaments of the chamber, +which seemed mechanical, so habitual was it to her sense of order and +tidiness. + +Her hand was on the gold-emblazoned Bible, I remember, and her +party-colored bunch of plumes lifted above it, as if for immediate +action, when her arm fell heavily to her side, and she heaved a bitter +sigh, so deep, it sounded like a long-suppressed sob, rather, to my ear. + +"If I could only think you did not hate me, Miss Miriam," she said, "I +believe I could be better satisfied to lead the life I do." + +"Hate you! Why should I hate you, Mrs. Clayton? You are only a tool in +the hands of my persecutor, I know, from your own confession, and I +understand your motive better in the last few moments than I did before +(inadequate as it seems to my sense of justice), for aiding this +oppressor. You have been very kind to me in some respects; an inferior +person could have tortured in a thousand ways, where you have shown +yourself considerate, delicate even, and for all this I thank you more +than I can express. I should be very ungrateful, indeed, were I to hate +you. The word is strong." + +"Yet you prefer even that hump-backed child to me or my society," she +said, peevishly. + +"The comparison cannot be instituted with any propriety," I responded, +gravely, turning away and dismissing the boy to his blocks and books, as +I did so, which made for him, I knew, a fairy kingdom of delight, +through the aid of his splendid imagination. + +A commonplace infant will tire of the choicest toys; they are to such +minds but effigies and delusion, which last, the delight of imaginative +infancy, to the cut and dried, dull, childish understanding is +impossible. + +I once overheard one little girl at a theatre--a splendid spectacle, +calculated to dazzle and delight imaginative childhood--say to another: +"It is nothing but make-believe! That house and garden are only painted. +See how they shake! And the women are dressed in paste jewelry, like +that our cook-maid wears to parties, and no jeweler would give a cent +for them; and the fairies are poor girls, dressed up for the occasion; +and the whole play is made up as they go. You see, I know all about it, +father says." + +I heard no more, but had a glimpse of a little, eager face suddenly +dashed in its expression, and of small fingers pressed to unwilling ears +to shut out unwelcome truths. + +The discriminating child seemed a little monster in my eyes, who ought +to have been sent out of the way at once of all companions capable of +_abandon_ and enjoyment; and, as to the "father" she quoted from, I +could imagine him as the embodiment of asinine wisdom, so to speak--the +quintessence of the practical, which so often, I observe, inclines its +devotees to idiocy! + +I knew very well that Wattie was not of the stamp to doubt the truth and +splendor of "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," or "Cinderella," as +surveyed from the stage-box, in his confiding infancy, any more than to +believing in baubles when the time came to justly discriminate. Woe for +the incredulous child, too matter-of-fact to be enlisted in the +creations of fancy, and who tastes in infancy the chief bitterness of +age--the incapability of surrendering life to the ideal! + +How fresh imagination keeps the heart--how young! What a glorious gift +it is when rightly used and governed! Hear Charlotte Bronte's testimony, +as recorded by her biographer: "They are all gone," she says, "the +sisters I so loved, and I have only my imagination left to comfort me. +But for this solace I should despair or perish." The words are not +exact--the book is not beside me, but such is their substance. He who +lists can seek them for himself in the pages of that wondrous spell +woven by Mrs. Gaskell--that tragic and strange biography which once in a +season of deep despondency did more to reconcile me to my own condition, +through my pity and admiration for another, than all the condolences +that came so freely from lip and pen. Every fabric that love had +erected crumbled about her or turned to Dead-Sea ashes on her lip. See +what a world of passion those French letters and themes of hers betray! + +The brand of suffering and suffocating sorrow is on every one of them, +plain to the eye of the initiated alone, they who have gazed on the +wonders of the inner temple--the holy of holies--and gone forth +reverently to dream of the revelation evermore in silence. + +But, above every ruin of hope, or pride, or affection, like an imperial +banner flung from "the outer wall," her imagination waved and triumphed. +"The clouds of glory" she trailed after her were dyed in spheres +unapproachable by death, or shame, or disappointment, and the gift +described in the Arabian story as conferred by the genii's salve when he +touched therewith the eyes of the traveler and caused him to see all the +wonders of the earth, its gems, its gold, its gleaming chrysolites, its +inward fires, unobscured by the interposition of dust and clay, which +veiled them from all the rest of humanity, may stand as a type of her +ideality. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +The six weeks which had been allotted to me as the term of my captivity +were accomplished, and still Mr. Basil Bainrothe came not--wrote not. I +had seen the month of August glide away, its progress marked only by the +changing fruits and flowers of the season, and the more fervent light +that pierced through the Venetian blinds when turned heavenward, for it +was through these alone that the light of day was permitted to visit my +chamber. + +Where, then, was the place of my captivity situated? In the environs of +a great city, possibly, for the wind often blew, laden with fragrance as +from choice rather than extensive gardens, through my casement, and the +shadow of a tall tree impending over the skylight of the bath-room was, +when windy, cast so distinctly on its panes as to convince me of the +neighborhood of an English elm, the foliage of which tree I knew like an +alphabet. + +And then, those fairy, Sabbath chimes! Were such musical bells +duplicated in adjacent cities? or was I, indeed, near our old, beloved +church, in which memory so distinctly revealed our ancient, velvet-lined +pew, my father's bowed head, and the venerable pastor rising white-robed +and saintly in his pulpit to bid all the earth keep silent before the +Lord! Conjecture was rife! Thus August passed away. + +My birthday had gone by, and the equinox was upon us, with its rapid +changes of sun and storm, when one of these tempests, accompanied by +hail of unusual size, shattered to fragments the skylight of the +bath-room. This hail-storm was succeeded by a deluge of rain, which +flooded not only the adjacent closet, but the chamber I occupied, among +other evils completely submerging the superb Wilton carpet, concerning +the safety of which Mrs. Clayton felt immense responsibility. + +A glazier came as soon as the weather permitted, who was carefully +escorted through my chamber by Mrs. Clayton to ascertain the repairs to +be made--a fresh-looking, white-aproned Irish lad, I remember (for a +human being was a novelty to me then), who found it necessary, in order +to repaint the wood-work, to bear the sash away with him, leaving behind +his tray of chisels and putty, and the light step-ladder he had brought +with him on his shoulder, and on whose return I vainly waited as a +chance for communication with the outer world. + +While Dinah was busy with mops and brooms drying the carpet, and Mrs. +Clayton thoroughly occupied with her active superintendence of the +needful operations, little mischievous, meddlesome Ernie had made his +way, contrary to all rules, beneath and behind my bed, and torn off a +goodly portion of the gray and gilded paper which had so far effectually +aided to conceal a closed door situated behind the bed-head, from which +the frame had been removed. Then, for the first time since our +acquaintance, did I slap sharply those little, busy fingers which I +could have kissed for thankfulness, and, watching my opportunity, I +replaced the paper, unseen by Mrs. Clayton, with the remains of a +gum-arabic draught which had been prescribed for his cough. I knew that, +after experiencing such condign punishment, he would return no more to +the scene of his destruction, and that he might forget both injury and +discovery, I devoted myself to his amusement during that active, long, +rainy day with unhoped-for success. + +The glazier had announced to Mrs. Clayton that his return might be +deferred for four-and-twenty hours, and, as the succeeding day was clear +and warm, I proceeded, in spite of broken sashes, to take my daily bath +as usual at twelve o'clock. + +Mrs. Clayton, with her prison-key in her pocket, and her snuffbox at +hand, yielded herself, to the delight of ginger-nuts and her +stocking-basket, and rested calmly after her fatigues of the preceding +day; and Ernie, attracted by the crunching noise--the sound of dropping +nuts, perhaps, which betrayed the presence of his favorite article of +food--hastened to keep her company--a thing he never did +disinterestedly, it most be confessed. + +An opportunity, now presented itself for observation which I knew might +not again occur during my whole captivity; and surely no sailor ever +ascended to the mast-head of the Pinta with a heart more heaved with +emotion than was mine, as I placed my foot on the last rung of the +ladder, and towered from my waist upward above the skylight. I had drawn +the bolt within, as I invariably did while bathing, and with a feeling +of proud security I stood and surveyed the scene beneath and around me. +The angle of vision did not, it is true, embrace objects immediately +below me, owing to the projecting cornices of the flat roof (a mere +excrescence from the original structure, as this was), but beyond this +the eye swept for some distance uninterruptedly. + +Bathed in the golden light of that autumn noonday sun, I saw and +recognized a long-familiar scene, and for a moment I reeled on the +slender step as I did so, and all grew dark around me. But, with one of +those energetic impulses that come to us all in time of emergency, I +recovered my balance in time to save myself from falling; and eagerly +and wistfully, as looks the dying wretch on the dear faces he is soon to +see no more, I gazed upon the paradise from which fiends had driven me. + +There, indeed, just as I had left it, lay the deep-green grassy lawn, +with its richly-burdened flower-pots, its laburnums, and white and +purple lilacs, and drooping guelder-rose bushes, and its great English +walnut-tree towering, like a Titan, in the centre. There was the +hawthorn-hedge my father's hand had planted, and the fountain-like +weeping-willow my mother had set, in memory of her dead, whose graves +were far away; and there towered the lofty elm-trees, with their long, +low, sweeping branches, meeting in friendly greeting, to two of which a +swing had once been attached as a bond of union--a swing in which it had +once been my childish pleasure to sway and read, while Mabel sat beside +me with her head upon my shoulder, held securely in her place by my +strong, loving, encircling arm. + +Nor were these all to assure me that, after a year of melancholy and +eventful absence, I looked again upon the precincts of home. A little +farther on rose the gray wall and tower of the library and belfry, half +concealed by its heavy coating of ivy, glossy and dark, and shutting +away all other view of the mansion. Beyond these last was the pavilion +my father had built for the playhouse of his children, through the open +lattice-door of which I saw a girl seated at her work, with graceful, +bending neck, and half-averted face. A moment later, Claude Bainrothe +lounged across the sward, cigar in hand. At his approach, the face +within was turned, and I recognized, at a glance, that of my young +aurora-like companion of the raft, Ada Greene. Then gazing cautiously +around, as if to elude observation (never dreaming of the eye dropped +like a bird's upon him), he lifted the rosy face in his hand and kissed +it thrice right loverly! + +I saw no more--I would not witness more--for had I not learned already +all that I asked or ought to know? Well might the dear old chimes ring +out their Sabbath welcome to one who had obeyed their summons from her +childhood up to womanhood! Well might the summer air bear on its wings +greeting of familiar odors, lost and found! + +This was no idle dream, no mirage of a vagrant brain like that +sea-picture, or that wild vision at Beauseincourt, but sober, and sad, +and strange reality. I understood my position from that moment, +geographically as well as physically. I was a prisoner in the house of +Basil Bainrothe (while he, perchance, reigned lordly in my own); that +house whose hidden arcana I had never explored, and which, beyond its +parlor and exterior, was to me as the dwelling of a stranger. + +Derisively deferential, he had resigned to me this secluded chamber in +the ell--his own particular sanctum, I remember to have heard--and +betaken himself, in all probability, to the more spacious mansion of his +former neighbor. + +Far wiser, even if sadder, than I went up its rounds, did I descend that +ladder! + +Half an hour after I had entered it, and with new hope, I emerged from +the bath-room as fresh as a naiad, having first abstracted from the +tool-box of the glazier two tiny chisels of different sizes, and a +small lump of putty, which I secreted, on my first opportunity, in my +favorite hiding-place--a hollow in the post of my bedstead--an +accidental discovery of mine, made during Mrs. Clayton's first illness, +since which I had always insisted on making up my own bed, much to her +relief. + +My conscience so disturbed me on the score of this theft, that I +hastened to secrete my only remaining piece of gold in the glazier's +box; ill-judged, as this appeared to me on reflection. The boy was an +apprentice, evidently, and might else, I thought, at the time, have been +the loser. I feared to add a line, and dared not seek a passing word +with him, so carefully was I watched. + +I next examined, with the eye of scientific scrutiny, two massive rulers +that lay on my table, one made of maple-wood, and the other of ebony, +and, having selected the first as most available for my purpose, +prepared to commence the most arduous undertaking of my life--the +careful shaping of a wooden key. + +I had read somewhere that, during the French Revolution, a young +peasant-girl, by means of such an instrument, had set at large her +lover, or her brother, in _La Vendee_; having taken with soft wax the +outline of the wards of the lock, in a moment of opportunity. + +That day my work began--three times a failure, but at last successful. +With the aid of putty, gradually allowed to harden I obtained the mould +I desired, in the dead of night, and afterward, whenever privacy, even +for a few minutes, was mine, I drew from my bosom my sacred piece of +sculpture, and worked upon it with knife and chisel alternately, as +devotee never worked on sculptured crucifix. Never shall I forget the +rapture, the ecstasy of that moment, in which, ensconced between my +bed-head and the wall, I slowly turned the key, first thoroughly soaked +in oil, in the morticed wards, and knew, by the slight giving of the +door, that it was unlocked. + +Not Ali Baba, when be entered the robbers' cave, and saw the heaps of +gold--all his by the force of one magic word; not Aladdin, when the +genius of the lamp rose to his bidding, bearing salvers of jewels, which +were to purchase for him the hand of the sultan's daughter; not Sindbad, +when he saw the light which led him to the aperture of egress from the +sepulchre in which he had been pent up with his wife's body to die--knew +keener or more triumphant sensations than filled my bosom as I laid that +completed key next my heart, after turning it cautiously backward and +forward in my prison-lock! + +I dared not, at that time, draw back the bolt above, that confined it +loosely yet securely, or turn the silver knob sufficiently to set it +even ever so little ajar; but I did both later, when oil had time to do +its subtle work, and I could effect my experiment in silence. Yet I +hazarded nothing of the sort when the quick ear of Mrs. Clayton held +watch in the adjoining room. I was obliged to take advantage of those +moments of rare absence, when, double-locking the doors of her chamber, +both inner and outer, she would descend, for a few minutes, to the +realms below, returning so suddenly and silently as almost to surprise +me, on one or two occasions, at my work. + +About the time of the completion of my experiment, I became aware of +sounds in the room beneath my chamber, and sometimes on the great +stairway (of which I now knew the largest platform was situated very +near the head of my bed), that gave token of occupancy. + +The rattling of china and silver might be discerned in the ancient +dining-room, at morn and night. The occupant probably dined elsewhere, +but the regularity of these meals was unmistakable. + +I recognized, faintly, the step of Bainrothe on the stairway, +distinguishing it readily from any other, as it passed and repassed my +hidden door. + +October had now set in, with a chilliness unusual to that bland season, +and I asked for and obtained permission to have a fire kindled in the +wide and gloomy grate of my chamber, hitherto unused by me. + +About this household flame, Ernie, Mrs. Clayton, and I gathered +harmoniously; she with her unfailing work-basket, I with book or pencil, +the baby with his blocks and dominoes and painted pictures--the only +happy and truly industrious spirit of the group. My true work was +done--else might it never have been completed. + +The presence of fire was indispensable to Mrs. Clayton, and, from the +time of its first lighting, she left me but seldom alone. Her rheumatic +limbs needed the solace that I had no heart to grudge her, distasteful +as she was to me, and becoming more so day by day--false as I now knew +her to be--false at heart. + +How hatred grows, when we once admit the germ--not, like love, +parasitically--but strong, stanch, stern, alone throwing down fresh +roots, even hour by hour, like the banyan, monarch of the Eastern +forest. I am afraid I have a turn for this passion naturally, but for +love as well, ten times more intense--so that one pretty well +counterbalances the other. + +To carry out the vine-simile, I might as well add at once that, in the +end, the parasitical plant has triumphed, and stifled the sterner +growth. In other words, Christianity has conquered Judaism. + +"I suppose I may soon expect a visit from Mr. Bainrothe," I said one day +to Mrs. Clayton. "I think my birthday approaches; can you tell me the +day of the month? I know that of the week from remembering the Sabbath +chimes." + +I thought she started slightly at this announcement, but she replied, +unflinchingly: + +"The 5th, yes, I am quite sure it is the 5th of the month." + +"Do you never see a newspaper, Mrs. Clayton, and, if so, can you not +indulge me with a glimpse of one? I think it would do me good--remind me +that I was alive, I have seen none since the account of Miss Lamarque's +safety, for which God be praised."[5] + +"No, Miss Monfort, it is simply impossible. I should be transgressing +the rules of the establishment." + +"Dr. Englehart's, I suppose, as if indeed there were such a person," I +said, impetuously--unguardedly. + +"Do you pretend to doubt it?" she asked, slowly, setting her greedy eyes +upon my face, and dropping her darning-work and shell upon her knee. +Why, what possesses you to-day, Miss Miriam?" + +"I shall answer no questions, Mrs. Clayton--this right, at least, I +reserve--but, the fact is, I doubt every thing lately, except this +child and God. I do not believe my Creator will forsake me utterly--I +shall not, till the end." And tears rolled down my face, the first I had +shed for days. I had been petrified, of late, by the resolution I was +making, and the effort of mind it had cost me. I had felt, until now, +that I was hardening into atone. + +"You desire to see Mr. Bainrothe, I suppose," she remarked, after a long +silence, daring which she had again betaken herself to her occupation, +without lifting her eyes as she asked the question. + +"I desire to look my fate in the face at once, and understand his +conditions," I replied, sullenly. + +"But what if he is not here--what if Dr. Englehart--" lifting her eyes +to mine. + +"I cannot be mistaken," I interrupted, with impetuosity, "I have heard +his step; he eats in the room below; I am convinced, for I know of old +that bronchial cough of his--the effect of gormandism--" + +Then suddenly, Ernie, looking up, made a revelation, irrelevant, yet to +my ear terrible and astounding, but fortunately incomprehensible to my +companion. What did that little vigilant creature ever fail to remark? + +"Mirry make tea," he said, or seemed to say, and my face paled and +flushed alternately, until my brain swam. + +"Make tea?" sail the voice of Mrs. Clayton, apparently at a great +distance. "No, I will make the tea, Ernie, as long as we stay together. +Mirry does not know how to draw tea like an Englishwoman." + +Oh, fortunate misunderstanding! how great was the reaction it +occasioned! From an almost fainting condition I rallied to vivacity, +and, for long, weary hours, sat pointing out pictures to the boy, to win +him to oblivion, and persuade him to silence. Singularly enough, but +not unusual with him, he never resumed the topic. I had taken pains to +hide my work from his observing eyes; and how he knew it, unless he lay +silently and watched me from his little bed, when I worked at early dawn +in mine, I never could conjecture. A few days later Mrs. Clayton +announced to me that Mr. Bainrothe would call very shortly. + +It was early morning, I remember, when she laid before me the card of +"Basil Bainrothe," with its elaborate German characters, on which was +written, in pencil, the addendum, "Will call at ten o'clock;" and, +punctual as the hand to the hour, he knocked at the dressing-room door +at the appointed time, and was admitted. + +He entered with that light, jaunty step peculiar to him, and which I +have consequently ever associated in others with impudence and guile. +Hat and cane in the left hand, he entered; two fingers of the right +raised to his lips, by way of salutation (he clinched his glove in the +remainder), to be offered to me later, and ignored completely, then +waved carelessly, as if condoning the offense. + +He was quite a picture as he came in--a fashion-plate, and as such I +coolly regarded him--fresh, fair, and smiling, looking younger, if +possible, than when we parted a year before, and handsome, as that +much-abused word goes, in his debonair, off-hand style of appearance. + +He was dressed with even more than his usual care and trimness (wore +patent-leather boots, my aversion from that hour, for these were the +first I had ever seen), and lavender-colored pantaloons, very tightly +strapped down over them; a glossy black coat and vest, and linen of +unimpeachable quality and whiteness; while a chain of fine Venetian +gold held his watch, or eye-glass, or both, in suspension from his neck. +Yet no beggar in rags ever appeared to me half so loathly as did this +speckless dandy! + +"You have come," I said, grimly, as he settled his shirt-collar to speak +to me, after formally depositing his hat and cane, and a roll of paper +he drew from his pocket, on the centre-table, and wiping his face +carefully with his cambric, musk-scented handkerchief, unspeakably +odious and unclean to my olfactories--"you have come at last; yet the +greatest wonder to me is, how you dare appear at all before me," and I +looked upon him right lionly, I believe. + +"You were always inclined to assume the offensive with me, Miriam. Yet I +confess you have a little shadow of reason this time, or seem to have, +and I am here to-day for purposes of explanation or compromise" (bowing +gracefully), and he rubbed his palms together very gently and +complacently, looking around as he did so for a chair, which perceiving, +and drawing to the table so as to face me where I eat on the sofa, he +deposited himself upon, assuming at once his usual graceful pose. + +It was _fauteuil_, and he threw one arm over that of the chair, +suffering his well-preserved white hand--always suggestive of poultices +to me--with its signet ring, to droop in front of it--a hand which he +moved up and down habitually, as he conversed, in a singularly soothing +and mechanical fashion--his "pendulum" we used to call it in old times, +Evelyn and I, when it was one of our chief resources for amusement to +laugh at "Cagliostro," our _sobriquet_ for this _ci-devant jeune homme_, +it may be remembered. + +"Let me premise, Miriam," he began, "by congratulating you on your +improved appearance"--another benign bow. "You were so burned and +blackened by exposure, and so--in short, so very wild-looking when I +last saw you, that I began to fear for the result; but perfect rest and +retirement, and good nursing, have effected wonders. I have never seen +you so fair, so refined-looking, and yet so calm, as you are now +(calmness, my child, is aristocratic--cultivate it!); even if a little +thin and delicate from confinement, yet perfectly healthy, I cannot +doubt, from what I see. Do assure me of your health, my dear girl. You +are as dumb to-day as Grey's celebrated prophetess." + +"All personal remarks as coming from you are offensive to me, Mr. +Bainrothe," I rejoined; "proceed to your business at once, whatever that +may be--a truce to preamble and compliments." + +"You shall be obeyed," he remarked, bowing low and derisively. "Yet, +believe me, nothing but my care for your fair fame and my own have led +me to confine you in such narrow limits for a season which, I trust, is +almost over. As to my persecutions, which, I am told, you allege as a +reason for leaving your house and friends so precipitately, these are +out of the question henceforth forever, I assure you"--with a wave of +the velvet hand--"since I am privately married to a lady of rank and +fortune, who will soon be openly proclaimed 'my wife,' and who will be +found, on close acquaintance, worthy of your friendship." + +While giving utterance to this tirade, Mr. Bainrothe was slowly +unwinding a string from around the roll of papers he had laid on the +table, and which he now proceeded to spread somewhat ostentatiously +before me, still mute and impassive to all his advances as I continued +to be. + +"There are several," he said. "Your signature to each will be required, +which, now that you are in your right mind again, and of age, will be +binding, as you know. My witnesses shall be called in when the time +comes. Dr. Englehart and Mrs. Clayton will suffice as proofs of these +solemnities--these and others likely to occur." + +"Solemnities! Levities, mockeries rather!" I could not help rejoining. + +He felt the sarcasm. His florid cheek paled with anger, his +yellow-speckled eyes glowed with lurid fire, he compressed his lips +bitterly as he said: + +"Marriage is usually considered a solemnity, Miss Monfort; and, let me +assure you, it is only as a married woman I can conscientiously release +you from confinement. You have shown yourself too erratic to be +intrusted in future with your own liberties." + +"Possibly," I rejoined. "Yet I mean to have the selection, let me assure +you, in return, of the controller of my liberties--nay, have already +selected him, for aught you know!" + +My cool audacity seemed for a moment to paralyze even his own. He paused +and surveyed me, as if in doubt of his own senses. + +"_Impayable_!" I heard him murmur, softly, and, turning to the +book-shelves, he left me for a time to master the contents of the three +documents over which I was bending. + +I read them in order as they were numbered, and became more and more +indignant as their meaning opened upon my brain, and culminated at last +in a sharp, sudden exclamation of utter disdain. + +I started from my chair and approached him, paper in hand. I think for +a few moments the idea of personal danger possessed him, and the vision +of a concealed dirk or pistol swam before his eyes, which he shielded +with his hand, while he placed a chair between us; and, truth to say, +there was murder in my heart, and in my eyes as well, I suppose, even if +the mistrust went no further. + +I could have obliterated him from the face of the earth at that moment +as remorselessly as if he had been a viper in my path striking to sting +me. Yet I advanced toward him with no demonstration or intentions of +this kind, having the habits of lady-like breeding and usual innocence +of weapons, and ignorance of the use thereof as well, to restrain me. + +I forget. Close to my heart lay one of the sharp, shining chisels I had +taken from the glazier in the bath-room. + +"What is it you object to, Miriam?" he asked, in faltering tones, as his +hand fell and his glimmering eyes encountered mine. + +From that day I have believed the legend which tells that, when the +Roman, helpless in his dungeon, thundered forth, "Slave! darest thou +kill Caius Marius?" the armed minion of murder turned and fled, dropping +the knife he held, in his panic, at the feet of the man he came to slay. +Almost such effect was for a time observable in Basil Bainrothe. + +It made me smile bitterly. "All, every thing," I answered. "The whole +requisition, from first to last, is base, dastardly--crime-confessing, +too--if seen with discriminating eyes. Why, if innocent of fraud toward +me and mine, should you ask a formal acknowledgment on my part as to +your just administration of my affairs, and a recantation of all I have +said to the contrary, both with regard to yourself and Evelyn Erle? +Such are the contents of this first paper, the only one that I could, +under any possible circumstances, be induced to sign as a compromise +with your villainy; for, not to gain my own life or liberty, will I ever +put hand to the others, infamous as they are on the very surface." + +"Miriam, this violence surprises me, is wholly unlooked for, and +unnecessary," he remarked, mildly. "From what Mrs. Clayton has told me, +I had supposed that my disinterested care and assiduity with regard to +your condition were about to meet their reward in your rational +submission to the necessities of your case and mine. Resume your seat, I +entreat you, and let us calmly discuss a matter that seems to agitate +you so unduly. Perhaps I may be able to place it before you in a better +light ere we have concluded our interview. You will sit down again, +Miriam, will you not?" + +"Oh, surely, if you are alarmed; but, really, I should suppose, with +Mrs. Clayton and Dr. Englehart no doubt in call, you need not be so +tremulous. There, you are quite safe, I assure you, in your old place, +with the table between us;" and I pointed derisively to _fauteuil_ he +had occupied so gracefully a few moments before, and into which he now +slowly subsided. + +"Contemptuous girl," he broke forth at last, "you may yet live to regret +this behavior; so far, nothing has been denied you; no expense has been +spared for your comfort; in a tribunal of justice you could say this, no +more: 'My guardian, thinking me mad from his experiences of my conduct +and health, and regaining accidental possession of me at a time when, +under a feigned name, I was thought to be drowned, deemed it best, +before revealing my existence to the world, to try and restore me to +sanity by private measures, rather than bring upon my malady the eyes +of a mocking world. In doing this, he used all delicacy, all devotion, +surrounding me with comforts, and many luxuries, and even humoring my +insane whim to have the companionship of a year-old child found with me +on the raft under circumstances suspicious--if no more--'" + +"Wretch!" I gasped, "dare only asperse me in thought, and"--the menace +hung suspended on my tongue. What power had I to execute it, even if +uttered? + +"As to my name, I feigned none. It was my mother's, is my own, and from +her I inherited, or, from the race of which she sprang, the power to +remember and avenge my wrongs; to hate, and curse--and blast, perhaps, +as well--such as you and yours, granted to his chosen children through +the power of Almighty God!" And again I rose and confronted him; then +fiercely pointed down upon his ignoble head, now bowed involuntarily, +either from policy or nervous terror, I never knew, a finger quivering +and keen with scorn and rage, an index of the mind that directed it. + +"I wonder you are not afraid to behave to me in this manner," he said, +at length, lifting his head with a spasmodic jerk, and raising to mine +his mottled, angry eyes, now cold and hard as pebbles, "seeing that you +are, so to speak, in the hollow of my hand;" and, suiting the action to +the word, he extended his long, spongy, right hand, and closed it +crushingly, as though it contained a worm, while he smiled and +sneered--oh, such a sneer! it seemed to fill the room. + +"True, true--I am very helpless," I said, sitting down with a sudden +revulsion of feeling, and, clasping my hands above my eyes, I wept +aloud, adding, a moment later, as I indignantly wiped my tears: "Yes, if +the worst betide there will only be one more martyr; and, what is +martyrdom, that any need shrink from it? The world is fall of it!" + +"Nothing, if you are used to it," he said, carelessly, "as the old woman +remarked of the eels she was skinning alive; I suppose you know all +about it by this time. But come, you are rational again, now, and I +don't wish to be hard on you, Miriam; I don't, upon my soul!" + +"Your soul!" I murmured--"your soul!" I reiterated louder; and I smiled +at the idea that suggested itself--"have reptiles souls?" + +"The memory of your father alone, my old, confiding friend, one of the +most perfect of men, as I always thought him, would incline me kindly to +his daughter, even if no other tie existed between us," he said calmly, +unmindful of my sarcasm. "But other ties do exist, mistaken girl! The +world looks upon us as one family--since the marriage of Claude and +Evelyn, that uncongenial union which, but for your caprice, would never +have taken place, and which is at the root of all our misfortunes, all +our fatal necessities." + +"Necessities!" I muttered, between my clinched teeth, drumming with my +fingers impatiently on the table before me, and smiling scornfully a +moment later. + +"You seem in a mood for iteration, to-day, Miss Monfort." + +"I make my running commentaries in that way, Mr. Bainrothe. But a truce +to recrimination and reminiscence both. Let us adhere strictly to the +letter and verse of our affairs. These papers form the subject of your +visit, I believe. Know, at once, that the first I will sign, on certain +conditions, bitter and humiliating as I feel it to be obliged to do +this; but, that I will ever consent to yield the guardianship of my +sister wholly to Evelyn Erle and her husband, or divest myself of my +house and furniture, or my wild lands in Georgia, to you, here first +named to me, in consideration of expenses already incurred and to be +incurred for Mabel's education, and my own safe-keeping, during a long +attack of lunacy; or that I will, to crown the whole iniquitous +requisition, consent to give my hand in marriage to that scoundrel--Luke +Gregory!--are visions as vain as those of the child who tried to grasp a +comet or the moon--or, to descend in comparison, to catch a bird by +putting salt on its tail! There, you have my ultimatum; now go and make +the best of it!" + +"I am prepared for your objections--prepared, too, to overcome them," he +said, coolly. "Take time to consider all this. I do not expect an answer +to-day, did not when I came, nor will I accept one signature without the +whole. There is no compromise possible. As to your marriage--it must be +accomplished before you leave this room. I, as a magistrate, can tie the +knot--fast enough to bind all the other agreements to certain +fulfillments, for Gregory is a friend of mine, and a man of honor, and +will see them carried out to the letter. He loves you, too, and proves +it, for he takes you penniless. Afterward a priest may complete the +ceremony if you have any scruples. Then, of course, it rests between you +and Gregory, whether you remain together or separate as wide as the +poles--I shall wash my hands of the whole affair thereafter, having +secured my good name and yours." + +I stood with bowed head and moving lips before him--mutely, +indignantly. + +"I shall, however, make all this," he continued, "appear as well as +possible to your friends and mine, especially, believe me, Miriam! I +shall state, for your sake, that, after being rescued from the raft, you +were partially insane, but still sufficiently mistress of yourself to +coincide with me and your sisters in the wish to let your death as Miss +Harz pass current with the world, until you should redeem your errors" +(what errors?), "and be restored to health and perfect reason. You will +see that your acknowledgment of the last paper includes these +extenuating facts, when you have leisure to re-read it (for I saw how +hastily you glanced over that one in particular); you must do me the +favor to peruse it much more carefully," drawing on his gloves coolly, +"before you make your final decision. You are very comfortable here, my +dear girl," glancing around benignly, "but you have no conception of the +frame of mind, bare walls, utter solitude, a tireless hearth and a +frugal table, would bring about in a very few days or weeks, or even in +one as resolute and defiant as yourself. I should be loath to try such +an experiment _or deprive you, of your child_--but _necessitas non habet +legem_, the school-book says. I think you, too, studied a little Latin, +Miriam?" + +"Monster!" + +"Not a very relevant or polite remark, I must confess. By-the-by, +Miriam, as you stand before me with your well-poised figure--your +blazing eyes--your quivering nostrils--your curling, compressed +lip--your heaving chest (always a splendid feature in your _physique_), +your folded arms, and the color coming and going in your pale-olive +cheek, in the old flame-like way I used to admire so much in your +girlhood--you are a splendid creature, by Jove! I could find it in my +heart to love you still--there, it is out at last--if it were not for +Mrs. Raymond--" glancing, as he spoke, in the direction of Mrs. Clayton, +with a knowing smile. "It was your magnificent disdain that kindled the +torch before. Beware how you revive that fanaticism of mine!" + +I turned for one moment with an involuntary feeling of appeal to Mrs. +Clayton, but her cold, green eyes were quivering in accordance with the +smile that stretched her thin lips to a line of mocking mirth. One +glimpse of sympathy would have carried me to her arms for +refuge--distasteful as she was to me in every way save one. She, like +myself, was a woman. But such perversion of all natural feeling +estranged me from her irreconcilably and forever. + +I was alone; shame, humiliation, despair, possessed me; indignation, for +the insult I was forced to bear in her presence, filled my soul--I stood +with my head cast down, tears raining on my bosom, my arms dropped +nervelessly beside me, my hands clinched, my whole frame trembling with +excitement. + +Slowly and one by one came those convulsive sobs--that rend and wrench +the physical frame as earthquakes do the earth. Then rose the sudden +resolve--born of volcanic impulse, irresistible to mind as is the +lava-flood to matter, sweeping before it all obstructions of reason, +habit, expediency. + +If it cost me my life I would avenge myself on this tiger, thirsting for +my blood; I would anticipate him in his work of destruction, and the +strength of Samson seemed to permeate my frame. + +It was strange that at that moment of cold, impetuous energy I forgot +the steel I carried in my bosom, and thought only of the power I bore in +my own hands. I determined to strangle him with my strong, elastic +fingers, of which I knew full well the powerful grasp. + +The consequences were as cobwebs in my estimate--compared to the ecstasy +of such revenge--for all this flashed through my brain with the swift +vividness of lightning, and in less than thirty seconds after his last +remark this matter was matured. The woman prevailed over the lady. + +I raised my eyes slowly and dashed away my tears, preparatory to the +onset. He was looking at me wonder-struck, and, perhaps, with something +like compunction in his face as I met his gaze. He must have read an +expression that appalled him in those dilated eyes of mine that +confronted his, for, as I sprang toward him, he bounded backward and +escaped through the door of Mrs. Clayton's chamber, which he shot after +him with undignified alertness. I stood smiling, and strangely cold, +leaning against the mantel-shelf, while my heart beat as though, it +would have leaped from my throat, and I could feel the pallor of my face +as chill as marble. + +Mrs. Clayton approached me, but I put her away with waving hands, "Go, +wretch!" I said, "woman no more, you have unsexed yourself. Leave me in +peace--your touch is poisonous." + +She shrank away silently, and I stood for a while like one frozen; then +cast myself down on a chair and gave way to bitter weeping. The +flood-gates were open, and the "waters" had indeed "come in over my +soul." I had restrained my passionate inclinations until now, not only +from a sense of personal dignity, but from a determination not to play +into the hands of my enemies and captors, and all the more from such +long self-control was the revulsion potent and overwhelming. + +The consciousness that Ernie was at my knee at last aroused me from the +indulgence of my grief, and I looked down to meet his corn passionate +and inquiring eyes fixed upon me with a masterful expression I have +never seen in any other childish face. It thrilled me to the heart. + +"What Mirry cry for--is God mad with Mirry?" he asked at length. + +"It seems so, Ernie--yet oh, no, no! I cannot, will not believe in such +injustice on the part of the Most High!" I pursued in sad soliloquy, +with folded hands, and shaking head, and musing eyes fixed on the fire +before me: "My God will not forsake me!" + +"Did the bad man hurt Mirry?" he asked, leaning with both arms on my lap +and putting up his hand to touch my face. + +"Yes, very cruelly, Ernie." + +"Big giant will come and kill him, and fayways put him in the river, and +the old wolf wat eat Red Riding Hood eat him, and then the devil will +roast him for his dinner." + +I could but smile, albeit through my tears, at the climax of these +threats which seemed to delight and stir the inmost soul of Ernie. His +eyes flashed, his cheek crimsoned, his wide red mouth curled with +disdainful ire, disclosing the small, pointed pearls within; he seemed +transfigured. + +"And Ernie! what will Ernie do for Mirry?" I asked, as I watched the +workings of his expressive face. "Will Ernie let the wicked man kill +Mirry?" + +He looked at his small hands and arms, then extended them wistfully. + +"Ernie will tell good Jesus," he said, "and he will make Ernie grow +big--ever so big--to tie the man and put him in a bag like Clayton's +cat." + +The burlesque was irresistible, and none the less so that the child was +so direfully in earnest. To his infant imagination no worse disaster +than had befallen Clayton's cat could be devised. This animal, adored by +him, had been bagged and exiled, perhaps drowned for aught I know, for +stealing cheese from the cupboard sacred to Clayton, by that vengeful +potentate, to the despair of Ernie. The idolized kittens, too, which had +followed her, had disappeared with their mother, and days of infant +melancholy ensued, during which the canaries before referred to were +brought as substitutes. The faithful heart still clung to its feline +passion, it was evident, though for weeks the memory of that hapless cat +had been ignored and its name unmentioned. + +I believe, after my momentary wrath was over, I should have been content +with the punishment suggested by the child, as sufficient even for Basil +Bainrothe. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 5: The raft on which Miss Lamarque and her family had found +refuge had been swept by the tempest of nearly every soul that clung to +it, after a terrible night of storm and rain, during which that +courageous lady--that Sybarite of society--sustained the fainting souls +of her companions by singing the grand anthems of her Church, in a voice +loud, clear, and sweet as that of a dying swan. One child was saved of +the nine little ones, and the brother and sister remained almost alone +on the raft. Let it be here mentioned that, at no period of her +subsequent life, a long and apparently prosperous one, could Miss +Lamarque bear to hear the circumstances of the wreck alluded to. Mr. +Dunmore and his companions found a watery grave.] + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +A nervous headache, that confined me to my bed for several days, +succeeded the degrading and exciting scene through which I had passed, +and, as Mrs. Clayton had at the same time one of her prostrating +neuralgic attacks, the services of Dinah were in active requisition. +During my own peculiar phase of suffering, the small racket of Ernie, +unnoticed in hours of health, grated painfully on my ear, and I caught +eagerly at the proposition of the negress to take him down-stairs for a +walk and hours of play in the sunshine, privileges he did not very often +obtain in these latter days. + +I was much the better for having lain silently for a time, when he +returned with his hands filled with flowers, his lips smelling of +peppermint-drops, and his eyes, always his finest feature, dancing with +delight. + +He had seen Ady, he told me, with eagerness, and she had kissed him, and +tied a string of beads about his neck--red ones--which he displayed; and +"Ady had a comb in her head, and her toof was broke"--touching one of +his own front teeth lightly, so that I knew he was not pointing out any +deficiency in the afore-mentioned comb. From this description, vague as +it was, I identified Ada Greene as the person intended to be described; +for I too had observed the imperfection he made a point of--a broken +tooth, impairing the beauty of otherwise faultless ones. + +"And who gave you the flowers, Ernie?" I asked, receiving them from his +generous hands as I spoke, and raising the white roses to my nostrils to +inhale their delicate breath, "Did Ady give you these?" + +"No--Angy!" he answered, solemnly. + +"Tell me about Angy, Ernie--had she wings?" + +"No wings! Poor Angy could not fly. She was walking in the garden with +Adam and Eve, with their clothes on," he said, earnestly. + +"Mr. and Mrs. Claude Bainrothe, no doubt," I thought, smiling at the +strange mixture of the real and the ideal--the plates of the old Bible +evidently supplied the latter, from which many of his impressions were +derived--and the practical pair in question the former, quietly +perambulating together. + +But "Angy!" Could I doubt for one moment to whom he applied that +celestial title? The face of one of the angels in the transfiguration +did, indeed, resemble Mabel's. I had often remarked and pondered over +it. + +"Tell me about Angy, Ernie," I entreated. "O Heaven! to think her hands +have touched these flowers--her sweet face bent above him! Darling, +darling! to be divided and yet so near! It breaks my heart!" and tears +flowed freely while he tried to describe the vision that had so +impressed him, in his earnest way. + +"Poor Angy got no wings," he began again; "bu hair, and bu eyes, and bu +dress"--every thing he admired was blue--"and she kissed Ernie and gave +him peppermint-drops. Then Adam and Eve laughed just so"--grinning +wonderfully--"and said, 'Go home, bad, ugly child, with a back on!' Then +Angy pulled flowers and gave Ernie!" + +"It is only the little gal next door--I means de young lady ob de +'stabishment, wut de poor, foolish, humped-shouldered baby talking +about," Dinah explained. "He calls her 'Angy,' I s'pose, 'cause she's so +purty like; and you tells him 'bout dem hebbenly kine of people, so de +say, mos' ebbery night. Does you think dar is such tings, sure enough, +Mirry?" + +"Certainly, Dinah--the Bible tells us so; but what is the name of the +pretty little girl of whom you speak? Tell me, if you know"--and I laid +my hand upon her arm and whispered this inquiry, waiting impatiently for +a confirmation of my almost certainty. For, that my darling _was_ +Ernie's Angy, I could not doubt, and the thought moved me to tremulous +emotion. + +"Dar, now! you is going to hab one ob dem bad turns agin--I sees it in +your eyes. You see," dropping her voice for a moment, "I darsn't dar to +speak out plain and 'bove-board heah, as if I was at home in Georgy! +Ehbery ting is wat dey calls a 'mist'ry hereabouts; an' I has bin +notified not to tell ob no secret doins ob deirn to any airthly creeter, +onless I wants to be smacked into jail an' guv up to my wrong owners. My +own folks went down on de 'Scewsko;' an' I means to wait till I see how +dat 'state's gwine to be settled up afore I pursents myself as 'mong de +live ones. We is all published as dead, you sees, honey, an' it would be +no lie to preach our funeral, or eben put up our foot-board. He--he--he! +I wonder wat my ole man 'll say ef he ebber sees me comin' back agin wid +a bag full ob money? I guess it 'll skeer de ole creeter out ob a year's +growfe; but dis is de trufe! Ef Miss Polly Allen gits de 'state (she was +my mistis's born full-sifter, an' a mity fine ole maid, I tells you, +chile!), wy, den Sabra 'll he found to be no ghose; fur it's easier to +lib wid good wite folks Souf dan Norf. We hab our own housen dar, an' +pigs, an' poultry, an' taturs, an' a heap besides, an' time to come an' +go, an' doctors won we's sick, an' our own preachin', an' de banjo an' +bones to dance by, an' de best ob funeral 'casions an' weddin's bofe, +an' no cole wedder, an' nuffin to do but set by de light wood-fiah, an' +smoke a pipe wen we gits past work; an' we chooses our own time to lay +by--some sooner, some later, 'cordin' as de jints holes out. But here it +is work--work--work--all de time; good pay, but no holiday, no yams, no +possum-meat, an' mity mean colored siety!" + +"But what has all this to do with the name of the little girl next door? +Whisper that, and tell me the rest afterward." + +"But, if Master Jack Dillard gits de 'state," she proceeded, as though +she had not heard my eager question, "wy, den Sabra Smif am as dead as a +door-nail from dis time to de day ob judgment, an' de ole man 'll have +to git anoder 'fectionate companion, I'se mity sorry for de poor ole +soul, but I a'n't gwine to put myself in Jack Dillard's claws, not ef I +knows myself. He's one ob dem young wite sort wat lubs de card-table, +an' don't 'scriminate atween ole an' young folks. You see, he's my +masta's nevy--for de ole folks had no chillun but Miss May Jane, an' +she's bin dead dis fifteen yeer; and bofe her chilluns dun follered her +to de grabe, so dere is only Miss Polly Ann lef, and--" + +Here Mrs. Clayton groaned audibly, and, calling Dinah to her aid, broke +up the _tete-a-tete_, if such might justly have been called our +interview. It was not very long, however, before Dinah returned to my +bedside, by Mrs. Clayton's directions, to offer to comb out my hair, +which was tangled beyond my skill to thread in my prostrate condition. +Yet, to make an effort so far as to rise and have this done, I knew +would be of benefit to me. + +We were sitting by the toilet, while the process of untangling my +massive length of locks was going on, and the upper drawer thereof was +half open, thus affording me a glimpse of its contents. Among these was +my silent watch with its chain of gold, its pencil and seal attached. I +wore it usually (though useless now in its silent condition--the +mainspring was broken) from habit and for safe keeping, but had laid it +there when I staggered to my bed, ill and weak after my terrible +interview with Mr. Bainrothe. + +It caught the eye of Dinah and stirred her master-passion, avarice, and +she began to question me, I soon saw, with a view of getting it in her +own possession. The selfishness of the old negress had struck me on the +raft as something rare even in one of her shallow race, and my +conviction of her cowardice and coldness prevented me from taking +advantage of her cupidity, as I might have done otherwise. + +She was fully capable, I felt convinced, of accepting my watch as a +bribe, and failing afterward to come up to her bargain. Yet, dear as it +was to me from association of ideas, I should not have weighed it an +instant against the merest probability of escape. I knew if I could gain +an hour upon my pursuers, I should be safe in the house of Dr. +Pemberton, or even in that of Dr. Craig, another friend of my father's. +I was comparatively at home anywhere in the city of my nativity, +acquainted as I was with its streets and people, and I fully determined, +when I found Sabra's avarice excited, to offer her as a reward this +golden treasure, should she first place me in circumstances to gain my +freedom. + +"Dey calls you pore, honey," she said softly, "but wen I sees dat bright +gole watch and chain I knows better. Now I reckon dey would bring enough +bright silver dollars at a juglar's shop ty buy my ole man twice over +agin! He is but porely, and our chilluns is all dead and gone, anyway, +all but one, way down in New Orleans, an' ef I could git his free papers +he might come here and jine his wife in freedom, even if Massa Jack +Dillard did heir masta's estate. How much would dat watch and chain be +worth, honey?" + +"Two or three hundred dollars, I suppose, I don't know exactly; but +certainly enough to buy your old man at Southerners' value set upon aged +negroes; but whether it be or not--" + +An apparition, of which I fortunately caught the reflection in the glass +before me, cut short the promise that hovered on my lips. It was that of +Mrs. Clayton, in her bed-gown and swathed in flannel, peering, peeping, +listening at the door of her chamber, as unlovely a vision, certainly, +as ever broke up an _entretien_ or dissolved a delusion. + +I maintained my self-possession, though my agitation was extreme (the +crisis had seemed so favorable!), while she limped forward and accosted +me civilly, with a demand as peremptory as a highwayman's for my watch +and chain, of which I took no notice. + +"I should be doing you great injustice in your condition," she added, +coolly, "to let you sell your watch, even to benefit Dinah and her old +man, benevolent as is your motive; so I must take possession of it, or +send for Dr. Englehart to do so, whichever you prefer." + +"The watch is there," I said, rising haughtily, with my still unadjusted +hair falling about me. "It was my father's and is precious to me far +beyond its intrinsic value; and I shall hold you accountable for it some +day. Take it at once, though, rather than recall the person before me +with whose presence you menace me. Keep it yourself, however; I would +rather deal with you than the others, false as you have shown yourself +to every promise." + +"I wish you would be reasonable," she said, "and do what your friends +ask of you. This confinement is wearing us both out; it will be the +death of me, and you will be to blame." + +"The sooner the better," I rejoined, heartlessly. + +"Ah, Miss Monfort, you have no better friend than I am, perhaps, but you +are ungrateful." + +"I hope not; but some things of late have shaken, I confess, what little +faith I had in you; this confiscation of my property is one of them." + +"You know why this is done; I need not explain, but I shall trust you +fearlessly in Dinah's society in future. I believe you have no other +treasure to bribe her with," and, smiling in her sardonic way, she +turned and limped to her bedroom, which it had cost her so great an +effort to leave. Her groans and moans during the remainder of the +evening were piteous, and Dinah could do nothing to comfort her. A +sudden determination possessed me. My own system recuperated rapidly, +and after a nervous headache I was always conscious of renewed vital +power and of keener sensations. I would try the experiment once +more--hazarded under circumstances so different that it made me +tremulous but to think of the vast abyss between my _now_ and then--and +essay to magnetize Mrs. Clayton. + +She could not sleep naturally, and she feared evidently to avail herself +of opiates, lest in her heavy slumber, perhaps, I should escape. In her +normal condition this seemed impossible, for she slept habitually as +lightly as a cat, or bird upon its perch, yet lying, and with her key +beneath her head (never dreaming of other outlet) she felt at ease. I +had already learned that since her illness there were additional +precautions taken to insure my safety, and, as she had alleged, her own +fidelity. + +The Dragon was watched in turn by a Cerberus--no other than the +long-trusted colored coachman of Basil Bainrothe, of whom mention has +been made far back in these pages. + +Thus secure and secured, Mrs. Clayton might have surrendered herself to +slumber with all serenity, one would suppose, had it not absolutely +refused to visit her eyelids, and the suggestion of an opiate, on my +part, was received for some reason in dumb derision. + +I went to her at last, and said: "Mrs. Clayton, I hear you groaning +grievously, and I fancy I could relieve you. The laying on of hands is a +sort of gift of mine; let me try by such means to ease your pain." + +"Thank you, Miss Monfort," very dryly, "you are very kind, indeed, but I +don't think you can relieve me. I have excruciating neuralgia in my +eyebones and temples, and my hands are cramped again. Dinah has been, +rubbing, without bettering them, for the last half hour." + +"Let me try," and, without farther parley, I sat down to my +self-appointed, loathed, and detested task, first quietly dismissing +Dinah to the next room, where Ernie was eating his supper, and I knew +would soon be wanting to be put to bed. We changed places for a time, +and it was not long before Mrs. Clayton pronounced the pain, in her eyes +"almost gone." The experiment was a desperate one, and I bore to it all +the powers of my organization--mental and physical--and had the +satisfaction in less than an hour to see her sleeping profoundly. She +had been failing fast under her painful vigils, and I knew that a few +hours of refreshing sleep would be worth to her more than all the drugs +in the Pharmacopoeia. Now came the test which was to make this slumber +worth nothing or every thing to me. If she could be awakened from it +without my coincidence, it would prove, perhaps, only a snare to my +feet, but if her waking depended on my will, then might I indeed hope to +baffle my Dragon, and, as far as she was concerned, make sure of my +escape. I willed then earnestly that she should sleep until twelve +o'clock; and at ten, when Dinah became impatient to retire, I gave her +permission, in order to gain egress to try and arouse Mrs. Clayton. + +In consequence of this immurement of our servant, I had remained +supperless--beyond the crusts of bread left by Ernie and some cold tea +in Mrs. Clayton's teapot, of which I partook with an appetite born of +exhaustion. Those who have undertaken this "laying on of hands," for the +purpose of soothing pain, will comprehend what the succeeding sensation +of nerveless prostration is--those only--and give me their sympathy. + +From her errand to arouse our sleeper in quest of the key, of course +Dinah returned disconsolate. Greatly to my satisfaction, she stated that +it was "out ob de question to try to git her eyes open. Why honey," she +pursued, "ef I didn't know what a steady-goin' Christian creetur she +was, I mout suppose she had bin 'bibin' of whisky or peach-brandy--dat's +de sleepiest stuff goin', chile; but I does believe she has the fallin' +fits, caze, even wen I pulled open one corner of her eyes, dey was +rolled clean back in her head. Mebbe she's dyin', chile, an' ef she +is--but no!" she muttered, "dat ole creetur down-stairs nebber leaves +dem back-doors opun one minute, you had better believe, even ef he +happens to turn his back a spell, an' it would be no use tryin' to git +out ob de 'stablishment dat way, but I knows whar she keeps her key, an' +I kin go to bed myself if you say so, an' you kin lock de do' inside, +an' lay de key back undernefe her pillow: you see dar's a bolt outside, +too, honey, an' I means to draw dat after me, as ole Caleb always does +ob nights wen he goes to bed." + +Chuckling low at the manifest disappointment in my face, she +disappeared, to return almost instantly. + +"I thought she must be possumin'," she said, "but I know she is as fas' +asleep now as de bar' in de hollow ob a tree in cole wedder, for she +made no 'sistance like wen I grabbed de key from undernefe her head, an' +here it is, chile, an' ef you wants to try your 'speriment you kin, but +I spec you'd better wait a spell," and she looked cunningly at me; +"dere's traps everywhar in dese woods!" + +It occurred to me as well that Mrs. Clayton might be feigning slumber, +having penetrated my design of lulling and soothing her fitful spirit to +rest; and feeling, as I did, an utter want of confidence in Sabra, not +only as free agent but as watched attendant, I determined as far as in +me lay to disarm suspicion by duplicity. So I lifted up my voice in +testimony of deceit, and declared my weariness of bondage to be such +that I had determined to embrace Mr. Bainrothe's conditions, and that in +a few days I should be free again without assistance. + +"So take the key, Dinah," I said, after observing it closely, and +perceiving that it was several sizes larger than that I had made, as +clumsy as that was, and, therefore, could be of no use to me. "Let +yourself out, and bolt the door behind you, and Mrs. Clayton shall see +that I will take no mean advantage of her slumbers." + +This arrangement having been carried with speedy effect, I returned to +my own chamber after a close scrutiny of Mrs. Clayton's condition, and +employed myself at, once in running my penknife around the door +concealed by my bed-head, and thus loosening the paper, pasted on cotton +cloth, that covered it, from that of the wall, with which it was +connected so intimately as to make the whole surface within the chamber +seem to form one partition. + +Long before this I had cut that which surrounded the lock, so that it +lay like a flap over it, fastened down lightly, however, with gum-arabic +(part of Ernie's draught for a catarrh), so as to baffle slight +inspection. My heart beat wildly as, after having effected this +preliminary step, I cautiously unlocked the door, which, for aught I +knew, might be, like that of Mrs. Clayton's closet, bolted without, so +as to frustrate all my efforts. It opened outwardly, and could have been +readily so secured. + +In the great providence of God, it was not bolted. I sank on my knees, +weak and prayerful, I remember, as the door swung slightly back, +revealing the platform beyond, and the short stair that led from it up +to the second story. The hinges creaked a little, and these I hastened +to oil; then closing and relocking the door softly, I crept (without +pushing my bedstead back again the few inches I had wheeled it forward) +to look once more upon the sleeping face of Mrs. Clayton. + +It was still calm and unconscious. Ernie, too, slumbered peacefully. +Every thing seemed propitious to my purpose. I threw on hastily the +famous, flimsy black silk and mantle that had been prepared for me on +shipboard, tied a dark veil over my head, and, with no other +precaution, went forth, as I hoped, to freedom. + +My heart seemed to suspend its action as, cautiously unlocking and +opening the door, I stepped forth on the platform. It will be remembered +that I knew the topography of the lower part of the house of old +thoroughly. + +I had been entertained there with my father more than once, when, as +heiress of my mother's great estate, I had commanded the reverence of my +hosts, and the situation of parlors, study, and dining-room, was +perfectly familiar to me. + +It was what in those days was called a single house, though a +spacious-enough mansion; that is, all the rooms, with one exception, +were placed either on the same side of the wide hall of entrance, or +behind it in the ell. The study alone formed a small lateral projection +on the other hand. The door of this apartment opened at the foot of that +stair, on the tipper platform of which I now stood trembling, weighing +my fate by a hair. I had left the door ajar through which I had crept +quietly, so that, in case of failure, I might have a chance of retreat +before discovery should be made. It was well, perhaps, that I did so on +this occasion, for otherwise I should scarcely have had nerve enough to +avoid the sure and speedy detection which must have followed the +slightest delay or noise made in returning. + +I lingered to reconnoitre some minutes on the platform before I ventured +to commence the wary descent of the broad, carpeted stairway. I had +convinced myself that the second story was empty, though a lighted lamp +swung in the upper entry, as well as in that below, throwing a flood of +radiance on the scene with which I would fain have dispensed. + +I heard the sound of voices from the closed parlors, and saw reposing on +the rack before me several hats and canes, indicative of visitors. From +the study, however, there fortunately came no murmur, and I found that +it was dark. The front-door stood invitingly open; I could see the +opposite lamp-post without, and I had made up my mind to dart on and +downward, and reach at a bound the pavement, when the door of the first +parlor was suddenly thrown back, and left so, by a servant coming out +with a tray of wines and fruits which he had been evidently handing, and +I had just time to shrink into shadow, favored in my wish for +concealment by the black dress and veil I wore, when a once familiar +form appeared in the door-way of the front hall, which I recognized at a +glance as that of Gregory. Closing the door firmly after him, he +prepared to divest himself of hat and cape in the hall, without a look +in my direction. After the completion of which process he entered the +parlor by the nearest door, setting that also wide open as he did so, +with some exclamation about the heat of the apartment, which seemed to +meet with acquiescence from the powers within. + +I caught a panoramic view of that interior before I fled swiftly, +noiselessly, hopelessly, back to my cage again, having lost my only +chance of escape by that fatal delay of five minutes on the platform. I +should have been out and away on the wings of the wind ere Gregory +entered the inclosure before the house, had I not hesitated. Yet, after +all, perhaps, I miscalculated. What if I had met him face to face--been +seized and dragged back again to captivity! Perchance it was better as +it was. Time would develop and determine this; but, in the interval, how +woeful was my disappointment! + +I had time to get to bed again, and in some degree recover my +composure; indeed, I had been in bed an hour when the clock in the +dining-room beneath me, which, since the evident occupancy of that +long-deserted hall, had been wound and put in running order, struck +twelve, with its deep-mouthed, melodramatic tones, and at the very +moment I heard sounds indicative of the resurrection of the mesmeric +sleeper. + +She was evidently startled in some way on finding herself awake again, +or perhaps from having fallen so soundly asleep in hands like mine, for +she called aloud first for "Dinah," then, repeatedly, on "Miriam," both +without effect. In a few moments after these appeals had died away she +came in person, as I knew she would, to reconnoitre. + +The bedstead had been pushed carefully and noiselessly back again on its +grooved castors against the door, from the lock of which the wooden key +had been removed, rewashed in oil, and hidden away in that hollow +aperture in the bedstead, which formed a perfect box, by the skillful +readjustment of one loosened compartment of the veneering of the massive +post. + +She shook me slightly, and I rose in my bed with a start and shudder, +admirably simulated, I fancied, and which completely deceived her +evidently. "I am sorry to have startled you so," she said, hurriedly, +"but where is Dinah, Miss Monfort, and how did she get out?" + +"I really cannot inform you where she is," I answered, petulantly. "I +scarcely think it was worth while to disturb me for the sake of asking +me a question you must have known, my inability to answer." + +"But how did she get out, Miss Harz?" + +"By means of the key under your head, which you will find in the lock, +no doubt, where it was left. She promised me, insolently enough, to +bolt the door outside to prevent egress, and I, to prevent ingress, +locked it within." + +"So she assured you we were both prisoners by night, did she? Well, I am +glad you have proof at last of what I told you." + +"I have no proof; but, as I have made up my mind to come to terms of +some kind very soon, I thought it useless to investigate. Do you feel +better for my laying on of hands? You seem refreshed." + +"Yes, greatly better; a good sleep was what I needed, and I fell into a +doze while you were beside the bed, I believe. I have heard of magnetism +before as a means of relief for pain; now I am convinced of its +efficacy." + +"Magnetism! You don't think it amounts to that, do you? You flatter me;" +and I laughed. + +"I do, indeed, and I am sure I am much obliged to you, Miss Monfort; +though, for that matter, you can never say, even when you come to your +own again--which you will now do shortly--that I have not been +considerate and attentive to you while in confinement." + +"You need not be afraid of any complaint as far as you are concerned. I +think I comprehend you and your motives by this time. Let there be peace +between us from this hour." And I extended my hand to her, which, very +unexpectedly to me, she seized and kissed--a proceeding deprecated +loathingly. "I assure you," I added, laughingly, "I would rather even +marry Englehart than continue here." + +"Then you will marry Mr. Gregory?" + +"I do not know--either that or die, I suppose--whichever God pleases. I +am weary of being a prisoner--weary of you, of every thing about me. All +that I cared for is lost to me, and I might as well surrender, I +suppose; not at discretion, however!" + +She turned from me silently, and sought her couch again; but I felt +instinctively that she slept no more; and so we lay, silently watching +one another, until morning. I dared not renew my efforts to escape, at +all events, in the night-time, when I knew the house was locked, and +watched without, as well as within--for this was the old habit of the +square. + +One--two--three--four o'clock came, and passed, and were reported by the +deep-tongued clock in the room beneath me, before I slept, and then I +dreamed a vision so vivid, that I wakened from it excited--exhausted--as +though its frightful figments had been stern realities. + +I thought that the noble dog Ossian came to me again and laid the +double-footed key upon my lap, as he had done at Beauseincourt--staining +my white dress with blood, not mud, this time, and that Colonel La Vigne +struck it furiously to the floor, and handed me instead the wooden one I +had carved, with the words of the proverb: + +"The opportunity lost is like the arrow sped: it comes no more. Your +wooden key will fail you next time, as it has failed you this, and you +will be baffled--baffled--as you tried to baffle me! Miriam, unseen I +pursue you!" + +Then he laughed horribly, and faded in the gray dawn, to which I awoke, +covered with cold dew, and trembling in every limb. Had he been there, +indeed, in spiritual presence? Was it his hand that had left that hand +about my brow--that surging in my brain--that weight upon my heart? O +God! had I indeed become the sport of fiends? At last I wept, and in my +tears found sullen comfort. The image so often caviled at as false in +_Hamlet_ came to me then as the readiest interpretation of what I +suffered, and thus proved its own fidelity and truth. "A sea of sorrow" +did indeed seem to roll above me, against which I felt the vanity of +"taking arms." + +My destruction was decreed, and I had nothing to do but suffer and +submit! + +All the persecution I had sustained since my father's death, at the +hands of Evelyn and Basil Bainrothe--all my wrongs, beginning at the +heart-betrayal of Claude, and ending with the immurement I was suffering +now at the hands of his father--all my strange life at Beauseincourt, +with its episode of horror, its one reality of perfect happiness too +fair to last, its singular revelations, its warm and deep attachments, +my fearful and nightmare-like experience on the burning ship, the level +raft, with the green waves curling above it, the rescue, the snare into +which I had inevitably fallen, the Inquisition-walls closing around +me--all were there in one vivid and overwhelming mental summary! + +I think if ever madness came near me in my life, it came that night, so +crushing, so terrific was this weight which, Sysiphus like, memory was +rolling to the summit of the present moment, to fall back again by the +power of its own weight to the valley below--the valley of despair--and +destroy all that it encountered or found beneath it. Yet, by the time +the sun was up, my eyes were sealed again in slumber. + +Before I close this chapter, it will be as well to describe the tableau +I had caught sight of through the open parlor door when I tempted my +fate and failed. + +Standing close in the shadow, so that, even if directed toward me +unconsciously, the glance of those within, I knew, could not penetrate +the mystery of my presence, I scanned with a sad derision the scene +before me. With a glance I received the impression that it required +moments to convey in narrative. + +On the hearth-rug, with his back to the fire, his legs apart, his +coat-skirts parted behind him, stood Basil Bainrothe, monarch of all he +surveyed, with extended hand, evidently demonstrating some axiom to the +two visitors ensconced on the sofa near him, who, with the exception of +their booted feet, and the straps of their pantaloons, were beyond my +angle of vision. On the opposite side of the chimney from these +inscrutable guests sat two ladies, elaborately dressed and rouged, in +whom I recognized at a glance Evelyn Erie and Mrs. Raymond. Just before +I vanished, Claude Bainrothe, courteous in manner and elegant in +exterior, approached them from the other parlor, in time to witness the +_entree_ of Gregory, to which I have referred, and to salute him +cordially. That these were all confederated I could not doubt, and +prepared to aid each other. How could I know that one pair of those +evident feet belonged to the invisible body of a man who was one of the +few whom I could have called to my defense from the ends of the earth, +had choice of champions been afforded me? It was not until long +afterward that I ascertained beyond a doubt that Major Favraud had +formed one of that company on the occasion of my fatal failure. Had I +dreamed of his presence, I should fearlessly have entered the parlor, +and thrown myself on his brotherly protection, secure of his best +efforts to rescue me, even though his own heart's blood had been the +sacrifice. + +Alas! should I ever find another dart like that, never to be recalled, +to launch in the right direction, and fix quivering in the eye of the +target?--God alone could know. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +After the one hopeful excitement of my prison-life, my spirit drooped +deplorably for a season, and all occupation became distasteful to me. My +diary even was abandoned, the writing of which had so well assisted to +fill my time, and, although destroyed daily, to impress upon my memory a +faithful and sequent record of the monotonous hours, else remembered +merely as a homogeneous whole. Had it not been for poor Ernie and his +requirements, I should have sunk under this fresh phase of suffering, I +am convinced. My health, too, was giving way. My strength, my energy +were falling. I kept my bed, as I had never been willing to do before if +able to arise from it, until noon sometimes, for want of nervous +impulse, and my food was tasteless and innutritious, even when I forced +myself to eat a portion of what was placed regularly before me. It +seemed to me that, long ere this, Wardour Wentworth must have +ascertained my fate, and the thought that he might be passive when my +very soul was at stake, thrilled me with agony unspeakable. + +This mood endured so long that even Mrs. Clayton grew alarmed. She +insisted on Dr. Englehart again, and, when I shook my head drearily for +all reply, begged that I would permit her to state my case to Mrs. +Raymond, who might in turn see some able physician about me and procure +remedies. + +To this, at last, I consented. + +The consequence was what I had hoped it might be: Mrs. Raymond came in +person, and I had at last the opportunity I had long desired of seeing +her alone. If thoughtless, if unrefined according to my views of good +breeding, she was still young, and vivacious, and perhaps kind-hearted; +besides this, sufficiently well pleased with herself to be generous to +one who could no longer be her rival. + +Her approach was heralded by a note from Mr. Bainrothe, full of his +characteristic, guileful sophistry and cool impertinence. It ran as +follows (I still possess this billet with others of his inditing--along +with a snake's rattle): + + "Miriam: I am glad to hear through Mrs. Clayton that reaction + has occurred, and that you manifest repentance for your recent + violence toward one who always means you well. A little jesting + on the part of your guardian, my dear girl, should meet with a + very different reception, and handsome women must submit to + compliments with a good grace, or run the risk of being called + prudes or viragos. Not that I mean to apply either term to you + by any means. Your father's daughter could not be other than a + lady, even if she tried, but I must confess your manners have + deteriorated somewhat since you went into voluntary banishment + among those outlandish people. I have heard no very good account + of this old La Vigne who died in debt, it seems, and left his + children beggars. I have some curiosity to know whether he paid + your salary. 'Straws show,' you know, etc. + + "It is now October; by the end of this month I hope you will + have made up that stubborn mind of yours (truly indomitable, as + I often say to Evelyn) to leave seclusion, and enter your family + once more in the only way you can do so respectably after what + has occurred--as a married woman. + + "You remember the French song which I was always fond of + humming, 'Ou est on si bien qu'au sein de sa famille?' How + appropriate it seems to your condition! + + "You will be surprised to hear that your step-mother's brother + has appeared on the tapis, and that he has had the audacity to + propose to adopt Mabel, whom he claims as his niece. + + "He seems a gentlemanly person enough, but may be an impostor + for aught I know. The young lady he was engaged to, Gregory + tells me, perished in the Kosciusko, which proves a relief, + after all, as it is rumored he has a wife in Europe. But such + gossip can hardly interest you very vividly. The man has gone to + California, and will probably return no more. + + "Did you, or did you not, meet this person at Colonel La + Vigne's? Favraud hinted something of the kind when he was here; + but I can get no satisfaction from Gregory. + + "They all believe you were drowned in Georgia, and I thought it + best for the present not to undeceive Favraud, who laments your + fate. + + "The surprise will be all the more pleasant; and, of course, + every thing will be explained to the satisfaction of friends + when you appear publicly as the wife of Luke Gregory--'long + secretly married!' You see, it will be necessary to go back a + little to save appearances, on account of Ernie!" + + The miscreant! I understood him now--oh, my God, for strength to + tear his cowardly heart from his truculent body! But no; let + there be no further unavailing anger. In God's good time all + should recoil on his own head. For the present, I must bear, and + make myself insensible; if possible; and yet, I would not + willingly have had the living greenness of my spirit turned to + stone, as we are told branches are in some strange, foreign + rivers--crystal-cold! + + Another extract, the closing one, and then forever away with + Basil Bainrothe and his flimsy letters: + + "Again, I must congratulate you on the subdued and humbled + temper you manifest. Claude, and Evelyn, and I, had just been + discussing a plan for removing you to another asylum, where + stricter discipline and less luxurious externals are employed to + conquer the otherwise unmanageable inmates. Dr. Englehart, you + know, holds up the theory of indulgence to his patients, and I + am rejoiced to find his measures have at last prevailed over + your frenzy. Mabel, like your other friends, believes you dead, + and is at home with Evelyn and Claude, and is growing in beauty + and intelligence every day. + + "She was quite shocked at her uncle's wild behavior, and + positively refused to go with him, is fond of Mr. Gregory, and + remembers you with affection. + + "Owing to my knowledge of your condition for the last year, my + dear child, I don't blame you for any thing that is past, not + even for those delusions with regard to my own acts and + intentions which formed your mania, nor for the misfortune and + sense of shame which, no doubt, caused your hasty flight, and + whose evidences you brought with you from the raft, in the shape + of a nearly year-old child. + + "I remain, faithfully yours, + + "B.B." + +The shameful accusations which brought the blood to my brow ought to +have been easier to bear than all the rest, because so easily confuted, +and because I knew not really believed; but they were not. The very idea +of shame humiliated me more than positive ill-treatment could have done; +and, spotless though I knew myself to be (as others knew me too--all I +loved and cared for), still my purity was shocked by such injustice. + +I felt like one who had gone out to walk in fresh attire, and been +mud-pelted by rude urchins, so that the outward robes, at least, were +soiled, and a sense of degradation and uncleanness became the +consequence in spite of reason. But, after all, the dress could be +easily changed when opportunity should occur, and all be made clean +again, and the mud-pelting forgotten or overlooked, and the urchins +punished or dismissed in scorn. + +Surely, God would not much longer permit this fiend to subjugate me. Had +I not suffered sufficiently? Alas! who but our Creator can judge of our +deserts, or measure our power to bear? + +In my adversity and lonely trouble I had drawn near to Him and his +blessed Son--our Mediator, and example, and only strength. Dear as was +still the memory of that earthly love, the only real passion I had ever +known, could ever know, it came no longer to my spirit as a substitute +for religion. I had learned to separate my worship of God from my fealty +to man, yet was this last not weakened, but strengthened, by such +discrimination. + +If only for the gift of grace it brought to we, let me bless my sad +captivity! + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +The dreary days rolled on; the health of Mrs. Clayton declined so +rapidly that a small stove was found necessary to the comfort of her +contracted bedroom, which freed me from the unpleasant necessity of her +actual presence. The stocking-basket was set aside, the gingerbread nuts +were neglected, and the noise of constant crunching, as of bones, came +no more from my dragon's den; nor yet the smell of Stilton cheese and +porter, wherewith she had so frequently regaled herself and nauseated me +between-meals, and in the night-season. I used to call her a chronic +eater--a symptom, I believe, of the worst sort of dyspepsia, as well as +too often its occasion. + +I prefer, myself, the Indian notion of eating, seldom, and enough at a +time. After all, is there any despot equal to the stomach and its +requisitions? What an injustice it seems to all the rest of the organs, +the royal brain especially, that this selfish, sensual sybarite should +exact tribute, and even enforce concession, whenever denied its +customary demands! + +There are human beings, the poor of the earth, as we know, who pass +their whole lives, merge their immortal souls in ministering to its +absolute necessities, who go cold, ill-clad, and ignorant, to keep off +the pangs of hunger; who sacrifice pride and affection at its miserable +altar. There are others, fewer in number, it is true, but scarcely less +to be pitied, who exceed this enforced servility in the most abject +fashion of voluntary adulation; who flatter, persuade, and bring rich +tribute to this smiling Moloch, only waiting his own time to turn upon +and destroy his idolaters. For the pampered stomach, like all other +spoiled potentates, is treacherous and ungrateful beyond belief. + +Yet the philosophers tell us man's necessity for food lies at the root +of civilization, and that the desire for a sufficiency and variety of +aliment alone keeps up our energies! I cannot think so; I believe it is +the stone about our necks that drags us down, and is intended to do so, +and which keeps us truly from being "but a little lower than the +angels." + +"Revenons a nos moutons!" + +The good-hearted vulgarian, who, whatever she was, and however +detestable the part she was playing, was at least possessed of womanly +sympathy, came frequently to see me during those weary days. Her +engagement to Mr. Bainrothe was never by her acknowledged, or by me +alluded to, and she seemed to have taken up the impression in some way +that I was the victim of an unfortunate attachment to that subtle +person, which had degenerated into a morbid and causeless hatred on my +part, leading to mania. + +Had she stated this conviction plainly, I might have been tempted to +undeceive her; as it was, I suffered the error to continue, knowing that +no condition of belief would influence her half so kindly toward me. +Women as a class have a sincere friendship for those who have undergone +slighting treatment at the hands of their lovers and husbands; and we +all know what a common trick of trade it is with men who have been +unsuccessful in their attempts to gain a woman's affections, or worse, +in their evil designs on her honor, to give out such mendacious +impressions! + +Yet, to the end of time, the vanity and credulity of women will lead +them to lend credence to such statements, rather than look matters +firmly in the face, with the eyes of common-sense and experience. I, for +one, am a very skeptic on this subject of manly dislike growing out of +female susceptibility, and usually take the conservative view of the +question. + +During one of these condescending visits of the "Lady Anastasia," whose +position toward Bainrothe I perfectly comprehended, through the +inadvertence, it may be remembered, of Mrs. Clayton, I ventured to ask +her whether she had met with her betrothed, as she had expected to do on +landing at New York, and when her marriage was to take place. + +"Whenever you come out of this retirement, dear; not before. You see I +have set my heart on 'aving you for my bridesmaid, with your friends' +permission." + +"Then Mr. Bainrothe has concluded to annul the condition of my marriage +before leaving the asylum." + +"Oh, I had forgotten about that! Well, we will have the ceremony +performed together, if you prefer; down in Dr. Englehart's +drawing-rooms." + +"You reside here, then?" I questioned; "you are at home in this house, +whosesoever it may be?" + +"Oh, no, you quite misunderstand me. I am staying with friends, and Mr. +Bainrothe is over at home with his son and daughter-in-law "--with a +jerk of her head in the right direction--"in the other city, I mean; I +am such a stranger I forget names sometimes. This, you know, is solely +Dr. Englehart's establishment." + +"I suppose that gentleman is absent, as I have not seen him lately," I +continued. + +"He has been absent, but has just returned. He speaks of calling, I +believe, very soon, to see you on the part of Mr. Gregory. How happy you +are to inspire such a passion in the heart of that splendid man!"--and +she rolled her eyes, and drew up her square, flat shoulders +expressively. "Do tell me where you knew him, and all about it; I am +sure he is much more suitable to you, in age and intellect, +than--than--even Mr. Bainrothe." + +"There is no question of him now," I responded, gravely, purposely +misunderstanding her; "he has been married some time to my step-sister, +Evelyn Erie, and, I suppose, with many of my other friends, believes me +dead!" + +"Oh, no, I assure you," she rejoined, with some confusion, "it is a +mistake altogether. Both Mr. and Mrs. Claude Bainrothe are perfectly +aware of your seclusion, and he, especially, recommended and contrived +it." + +"There _was_ contrivance, then; you admit that!" I said, impressively. + +At this juncture a feeble voice from the adjoining room was heard +calling aloud, and I listened to it, uplifted as it was, evidently, in +tones of remonstrance and reproof, for some moments afterward--the Lady +Anastasia having hastened, with dutiful alacrity, to the bedside of her +_soi-disant_ servant. + +I became aware, after this visit, that Mrs. Raymond had become my jailer +as well as her mother's. She came regularly at supper-time thereafter to +superintend Dinah's arrangements, to give Mrs. Clayton her +night-draught, which did not assuage her direful vigilance one +particle, but rather seemed to infuse new powers of wakefulness in those +ever-watchful eyes, until sunrise, when, protected by the knowledge that +others besides herself were on the watch, she permitted sleep to take +possession of her senses. + +I earnestly believe that no one ever so effectually controlled the +predisposition to slumber as did this woman. + +After locking us up regularly for the night, the "Lady Anastasia" +withdrew, followed by Dinah; and I would hear, later, sounds of +festivity, in which her well-known laugh was blended, in the dining-room +below, where, with Bainrothe and his friends, she held wassail, +frequently, until after midnight. The groans of Mrs. Clayton would then +commence, and, with little intermission, last until morning's light. + +Yet it was something to be rid of Mrs. Raymond's surveillance during +those very hours I had selected for my second effort to escape. This +must be hazarded, I knew, between eight and ten o'clock of the evening, +during which time I had reason to suppose the house-door remained +unlocked. The risk of encountering some one in the hall below--for there +was constant passing and repassing of footsteps during those +hours--constituted my chief danger; but, at all hazards, the experiment +must then, if at all, be made. + +October was fast drifting away, and I knew that at its close my course +would be decided for me, should I not anticipate such despotism by +setting it at naught, in the only possible way--that of flying from the +scene of my oppression. + +How to do this, and when, became the one problem of my existence; and it +was well for me that Mrs. Clayton was too great a sufferer to notice +beyond my external safety, or she might have seen clear indications of +some strange change at work, stamped upon my features. + +My unsettled intentions were suddenly brought to a crisis by the +contents of a letter handed to me, as usual, in the shadows of the +evening, by the long-absent Dr. Englehart, who came in person, in +accordance with Mrs. Raymond's announcement (arriving, as it chanced, +while Mrs. Clayton slumbered), to deliver it. + +Gregory wrote a large, clear hand, not difficult to decipher, even by +the dim light of a moonlight lamp; and, while Dr. Englehart stood +regarding me in the shadow, anxiously enough, I perceived, to keep me +entirely on my guard, I perused, with mingled derision and terror, this +truly characteristic epistle. My running commentaries, as I +read--entirely _sotto voce_, of course, for one does not care to rouse +the wrath of a tiger on the crouch, by flinging pebbles in the +jungle--may give some idea of the impression it made upon me, and the +emotions it excited. + + * * * * * + +"Beloved Miriam" (insolent cur!)--"for by this tender title I am +permitted to address you at last" (by whom?)--"I cannot flatter myself +that, in concurring with the wishes of your friends, you return my +fervent passion" (you are mistaken there; I do return it with the seal +unbroken); "but will you not suffer me to hope that the deep, +disinterested devotion of mouths may undo the past, and dissolve those +bitter prejudices which I feet well aware were instilled into your heart +by one of the coldest and most time serving of men" (of course, hope is +free to all; it is no longer kept in a box, as in the days of Pandora)? +"When I assure you that Wentworth, with a perfect knowledge of your +present situation, has repudiated the past, you will more perfectly +understand my reference" (I will believe this when he tells me so, not +before; your assertion simply reassures me). "It is not, however, to +place my own devotion in contrast with his perfidy, that I now address +you" (Nature drew the contrast, fortunately for him, without your +assistance), "but to beseech you, for your own sake, to let nothing turn +you from your recently-formed resolution" (I don't intend to let any +thing turn me, if I can help it, this time!). "It remains with you to +live a free and happy life, adored and indulged by one who would give +his heart's blood to serve you" (a poor gift, I take it), "or pass your +whole existence in the cell of a lunatic, cut off from every being who +could care for or protect you." (Great Heavens! what can the wretch +mean?) "Should you refuse to become my wife, and affix your signature to +the papers in your possession, I have reason to know that Bainrothe +designs to make, or rather continue, you dead, and imprison you in a +lonely house on the sea-coast, which he owns, where others of his +victims have before now lived and died unknown!" (Very melodramatic, +truly; but I don't believe Cagliostro would dare to do it.) "To convince +you of the truth of my allegations, Dr. Englehart is instructed to place +in your hands a note recently intercepted by me from that +arch-conspirator to his son, which please return to him, my truest +friend" (direst enemy, you mean), "along with this letter, as I send you +both documents at my own peril, and dare not leave them in your hands" +(how magnanimous!); and here I dropped the letter on the table, and +extended my hand mutely to Dr. Englehart for the note, which was ready +for me, in the hollow of his pudgy palm. + +It did, indeed, most clearly confirm the statement, true or false, of +the ubiquitous Gregory. Returning it to the physician _pro tem._, I then +continued the perusal of this singular love-letter to the end, in which +the lawyer and knave predominated in spite of Eros! Yet there was food +for consideration here, and extremest terror. + +"How long before this ultimatum is proposed to me, which Mr. Gregory +seemed to anticipate, and with which you, no doubt, are acquainted?" I +asked, coldly, after consideration. + +"Ten days will close up de whole transaction, as I understand," was the +no less cool reply, made in those husky, inimitable tones, peculiar to +the man of petty pills. + +"Ten days! It would seem a short time wherein to get up a reasonable +trousseau, even!" + +"True--true! but nosing of dat kind is necessaire under dese +circumstances--only your mos' gracious and graceful consent!" He spoke +eagerly, with bowed head and clasped hands, standing mutely before me +when he had concluded. + +"If Mr. Gregory loved me truly, he would not limit me thus," I hazarded. +"He would give me time to learn to return his affection, as I must try +to do, and to forget the past! He would not strike hands with my +persecutors, but insist on my liberation--or obtain it, as he could +readily do, without their cooeperation, through you, Dr. Englehart, who +seem to be his friend and ally, and who have already run such risks for +his sake in bringing me these two dangerous letters," and as I spoke I +pushed them across the table, to be gathered up and concealed with +well-affected eagerness. + +How perfectly he played his part, and how cunningly Bainrothe had +contrived to convey to me his menace--real, or assumed for effect, I +could not tell which, for my judgment spoke one language, my cowardice +another! Yet, I confess, that the panic was complete, though I concealed +it from the enemy. + +"Women usually, at least romantic and incredulous women like me, demand +some proof of a lover's devotion," I resumed, as coolly as I could, +"before yielding him their faith and fealty; but Mr. Gregory has given +me no evidence so far of the sincerity of his passion; I confess I find +it difficult, under the circumstances, to believe in its existence." + +He drew near to me, bent eagerly above me, then again concealed himself, +as it was wise for him to do, in shadow; and I could hear his hissing +breath, as it passed between his closed teeth--like that of a roused +serpent. The impulse of the man came near betraying him, but he rallied +and refrained from an exposure, as he would have supposed it, that must +have been fatal to his success as a lover, even if it confirmed his +power of possession. + +His tones, low and deep, were unmistakably those of suppressed passion +when he spoke again, and he had almost dropped his accent, so +wonderfully assumed. + +"When shall he come to you, and speak for himself? Let me take to him +some word of encouragement from your lips--for de love of whom--he +languishes--he dies! All other passions of his life have proved like +cobwebs, compared to this--avarice, ambition, revenge, all yield before +it! He is your slave! Do not trample on a fervent heart, thus laid at +your feet! Have mercy on this unfortunate!" + +"Strange language from a captor to a captive--mocking language, that I +find unendurable! Let Mr. Gregory remain where he is until the extreme +limit of the interval granted me by Basil Bainrothe--as breathing-space +before execution; and before hope expires in thick darkness--then let +him come and take what he will find of the victim of so much perfidy!" + +"You do not--you cannot--meditate personal violence, self-murder?" He +spoke in a voice of agony, that could scarcely be restrained from +breaking into its natural tones. + +"No--no--do not flatter yourselves that I could be driven by you--by +_any_ one to such God-offending," I hastened to say, for I felt the +importance of keeping this barrier of disguise, of ice, between Gregory +and myself as a means of safety for a season, and determined that he +should not transcend it, if I could prevent an _expose_, such as his +excited feelings made imminent. "My hopes are dead--say this to Mr. +Gregory--and I have reason to believe I should fare as well in his hands +as in any other's, knowing him--as I know him to be--" and I hesitated +here for a moment--"gentle, compassionate, faithful, where his feelings +are fairly enlisted." + +"He thanks you, through my lips, most lovely lady, for dis great proof +of consideration; dis message,--which I shall truthfully deliver, will +fill his heart with joy, long a stranger to his breast, for he has +feared your hatred." + +"Now go, Dr. Englehart, and let no one come to me without previous +warning, for I need all my strength to bear me up in this emergency. Nor +would I meet Mr. Gregory without due preparation--even of apparel," and +I glanced at my dress of spotted lawn, faded and unseasonable as it +seemed in the autumn weather. "I know his fastidiousness on this +subject, and from this time it ought to, it must be my study to try to +please him." + +Why was not the fate of Ananias or Sapphira mine after that false +utterance? Why did I triumph in the strength of guile that desperation +gave me, rather than sink abashed and penitent beneath it? And this was +the woman who had once lectured on duplicity and expediency, and deemed +herself above them! + +Bitter and nauseous as was this bowl to me, I drank it without a +grimace; so much depended on the measure of deceit--hope, love, honor, +life itself perhaps--for my terrors whispered that even such warnings as +those Gregory had given were not to be disregarded where there was +question of success or failure to Basil Bainrothe! But one alternative +presented itself--escape! Delay, I scarce could hope for, and, even if +granted, how could it avail me in the end? Those words--"He will make +you dead!" rang in my ears, and seemed written on the wall. They +confronted me everywhere. It was so easy to do this--easy to repeat what +the papers had already told the world--so easy to confine me in a +maniac's cell under an assumed name, and by the aid of my own gold, and +say, "She perished at sea!" + +It would be to the interest of all who knew it, to preserve the secret, +except the poor ship's captain, and he had been a dupe, and would +scarcely recognize his folly, or, if he did, be the first to boast of +and publish it. Besides that, should the matter be inquired into, how +easy for Bainrothe to allege that my own family had sanctioned his +course to save my reputation! For innuendo was over on this disgraceful +subject. He had declared openly his base design. + +Years might elapse before the final exposition, years of utter ruin to +my prospects and my hopes. Wentworth might be married by that time, or +indifferent, or dead; Ernie too old to make the matter of a year or two +of consequence in the carrying out of the nefarious scheme to sustain +which it would be so easy to summon and suborn witnesses. + +All these possibilities represented themselves to me with frightful +distinctness; my mind became imbued with them to the exclusion of all +else--of reason even, I was literally panic-stricken, and nothing but +flight could satisfy my instinct, my impulse of self-preservation. I +must go, even if blown like a leaf before the gales of heaven; must fly, +if even to certainty of destruction. I had felt this necessity once +before, be it remembered, but never so stringently, so morbidly as now. +I was yielding under the agony, the anxiety incident to my condition; my +nervous system, too severely taxed, was breaking down, and it would +succumb entirely, unless relief came to me (of this I felt convinced), +before another weary month should roll away. Had I been imprisoned for a +certain term of years as an expiation for crimes, I think I could have +borne it better; but the injustice, the uncertainty of these proceedings +were more than I could sustain. + +I fell asleep, I remember, on the night of my interview with +Gregory--_alias_ Englehart--to dream confusedly of Baron Trenck and his +iron collar, and the Princess Amelia and her unmitigated grief, and it +seemed to me that I was given to drink from a cup the poor prisoner had +carved (as memoirs tell us he carved and sold many such), filled with a +sort of bitter wine, by the man in the iron mask--so vividly did Fancy, +mixing her ingredients, typify the anguish of my waking moments, and +reproduce its anxieties, in dreams of night that could not be +controlled. + +When I awoke in the morning it was to lie quietly, and listen to the +doleful voice of Sabra, for such had been Dinah's Congo name, uplifted +in what site called a "speritual" as she cleaned the brass mountings of +the grate and kindled its tardy fires. With very slight alteration and +adjustment, this picturesque and dramatic Obi hymn is given in this +place, just as I jotted it down in my diary, thus imprinting it on my +memory from her own dolphin-like lips and bellows-like lungs. Her +forefathers, she informed me with considerable pride, had been +snake-worshipers, and she certainly inherited their tendency to treat +the worst enemy of mankind with respectful adoration. + +It served to divert my mind from its one fixed idea for a little time to +arrange this singular hymn, which, together with those she had given +voice to on the raft, proved her poetic powers. For Sabra assured me +that this gift of sacred song had come to her one day when she was +washing her master's linen, and that she had felt it run cold streaks +down her back and through her brain, and that from that time she was +uplifted to sing "sperituals" by spells and seasons. This, her longest +and most successful inspiration, I now lay before the reader: + + SABRA'S SPERITUAL. + + We's on de road to Zion, + We's on de paf' to Zion, + But dar's a roarin' lion, + For Satan stops de way. + Oh! lef' us pass, ole Masta, + Oh! lef' us pass, strong Masta, + Oh! lef' us pass, rich Masta-- + 'T am near de break ob day! + + We's on de road to Zion, + We's on de paf' to Zion, + But wid his red-hot iron + He bars de hebbenly gate + Oh! lef' us pass, ole Masta, + Oh! lef' us pass, kin' Masta, + Oh! lef' us pass, sweet Masta, + For we is mighty late! + + Does you hear de rain a-fallin'? + Does you hear de prophets callin'? + Does you hear de cherubs squallin' + Wat's settin' on de gate? + Oh! lef' us pass, ole Masta, + Oh! step dis side, kin' Masta, + Unbar de do', dear Masta, + We _dar_' no longer wait! + + Does you hear de win' a blowin'? + Does you hear de chickens crowin'? + Does you see da niggars hoein'? + It am de break ob day! + Oh! lef' us by, good Masta, + Oh! stan' aside, ole Masta, + Oh! light your lamp, sweet Sabiour, + For we done los' our way! + + We'll gib you all our money. + We'll fotch you yams and honey, + We'll fill your pipe wid 'baccer, + An' twiss your tail wid hay! + We'll shod your hoofs wid copper, + We'll knob your horns wid silber, + We'll cook you rice and gopher, + Ef you will clar de way! + + He's gwine away, my bredderin, + He's stepped aside, my sisterin, + He's clared de track, my chillun, + Now make do trumpets bray! + We tanks you kindly, Masta, + We gibs you tanks, ole Masta, + You is a buckra Masta, + Whateber white folks say! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +During these last days of my captivity, Mrs. Clayton was truly a piteous +sight to see--swathed in flannel and helpless as an infant, yet still +perversely vigilant as she had been in her hours of health, and +determined on the subject of opiates as before. I sometimes think she +feared to place herself wholly in my hands, as she must have been under +the influence of a powerful anodyne, and that, in spite of her +professions of confidence, and even affection, she feared me as her foe. +God knows that, had it been to save my own life, I would not have harmed +one hair of her viperish head, as flat on top as if the stone of the +Indian had been bound upon its crown from babyhood, yet full of brains +to bursting around the base of the skull. + +It was necessary for Dinah to be in constant attendance on my Argus, and +even to feed her, so helpless were her hands, with the mucilages which +now formed her principal diet, by the order of some celebrated +physician, who wrote his prescriptions without seeing his patient, after +the form of the ancients, sending them daily through the hands of Mrs. +Raymond. Still those vigilant green eyes never faltered in their task, +and lying where--with the door opened between our chambers (as she +tyrannically required it to be most of the time) she could command a +view of almost every act of my life--I found her scrutiny more +unendurable than when she had at least feigned to be absorbed with her +stocking-basket. Ernie's noise, too, disturbed her, and I was obliged to +keep him constantly amused, for fear that her wrath might culminate in +eternal banishment. + +The days slid on--November had passed through that exquisite phase of +existence (which almost redeems it from the reproach cast upon it +through all time, of being _par excellence the_ gloomy month of the +year), the sweet and balmy influences of which had reached us, even +through the walls of our prison-house, in the shape of smoky sunshine, +and balmy, odorous, and lingering blossoms, and was now asserting its +traditional character with much angry bluster of sleet, and storm, and +cutting wind. It was Herod lamenting his Marianne slain by his own hand, +and making others suffer the consequences of his regretted cruelty, his +remorseful anguish. It was the fierce Viking making wild wail over his +dead Oriana. + +No more to come until another year had done its work of resurrection and +decay, the lovely Indian Summer slumbered under her mound of withered +flowers and heaps of gorgeous leaves, unheeding all, or unconscious of +the grief of her stern bridegroom. + +Cold and bitter and bleak howled the November blast, and ruthlessly +drove the fleet against the shivering panes, exposed without, though +shielded within by Venetian folding shutters, on that gray morning, when +a passing whisper from most unlovely and altogether unfaithful lips +nerved me paradoxically to sudden resolution. + +False as I knew old Dinah to be--almost on principle--still, I could not +disregard the possible truth of her passing warning, given in broken +whisper first as she poured out my tea and afterward prepared my bath. + +"Honey, don't you touch no tea nor coffee dis evening after Dinah goes +oat ob here an' de bolt am fetched home; jus' make 'tence to drene it +down, like, but don't swaller one mortal drop, for dey is gwine to give +you a dose of laudamy"--nodding sagaciously and peering into the teapot +as she interpolated aloud; "sure enough, it is full ob grounds, honey! +(I heerd 'um say dat wid my own two blessed yers), for de purpose of +movin' you soun' asleep up to dat bell-tower (belfry, b'leves dey call +it sometimes)--he! he! he! next door, in dat big house, war de res' on +'em libs, de little angel gal too. You see, honey, der was an ossifer to +sarve a process writ about somebody here dis mornin', but dar was +something wrong about it, so dey all said, an' he is comin' to sarch de +house for you, I spec', to-morrow; for de hue an' cry is out somehow--or +mebbe it's me--he! he! he! (very faintly) an' dey is gwine to move you, +so dey says, to keep all dark, after you gets soun' asleep. But de +ossifer is 'bleeged to wait till mornin' (court-time, as I heerd 'em +say) comes roun' agin to git de _haby-corpy_ fixed up right, an' dat'a +how he spounded hisself. Wat does dat mean, honey?" + +"I can scarcely make you understand now, Dinah" (aside). "Don't ask +me--just go on, low, very low; how did you hear all this?" (Aloud) "More +cream, Dinah." + +"Wid my ear to de key-hole, in de study, war dey axed de osaifer. My +'spicions was roused by de words he 'dressed to me wen I opened de front +do', for, you see, dat ole nigger watch-dog ob dern, dat has nebber a +good word for nobody, was gone to market, an' Madame Raymond she hel' de +watch, an' she sont me from de kitchen to mine de front-do' bell. + +"'Old dame,' says the ossifer (for so dey calls him), as pleasant as a +mornin' in May, 'has you a young gal locked up here as you knows ob? Now +tell what you choose, and don't be afraid of dese folks. Dis is a free +country for bofe black and white.' + +"Den I answered him straightforward like de trufe: 'Dar's nobody in de +house heah but wat you kin see for axin' for 'em, as far as I knows on. +Wat young gal do you 'lude to, masta?--Bridget Maloney, I spose, dat +Irish heifer wat does de chambers ebery mornin' and goes home ob +ebenin's, Ef you means her, she's off to church to-day, an' sleeps at +her mammy's house.' + +"'Does you feel willin' to swar to de trufe of your insertion, ole +dame?' he disclaims. 'I shall resist on dat'--fierce as a buck-rabbit, +holdin' up his right hand, an' blinkin' his little 'cute eyes. + +"Sartin an' sure I does when de right time is come,' I sez. 'Jes' take +me to de court-hous' ef you doubt Dinah's word compunctionable. I neber +hab bin in dat place yit since I was sold in Georgy on de block befo' de +high, wooden steps; but I knows it in more solemn to lie dar dan in +Methody meetin'-house.' + +"Den Mr. Bainrofe he cum out, hearin' de talk, in dat long-tailed, +satin-flowered gownd ob his'n, wid a silk rope tied roun' his waist, an' +gole tossels hangin' in front, jes' like a Catholic Roman or a king, an' +he sez, 'Walk in here, my fren, an' don't tamper wid my servants--dat +ain't gentlem'ly;' den he puts his han' on de ossifer's shoulder, an' +dey walked in together, an' I listened at de do', in duty boun', an' I +heerd him say,' Plant a guard if you choose--do wateber you like--but, +till dat writ am rectified, you can't sarch through my house, for a +man's house is his castle here, as in de Great Britain, till de law +reaches out a long arm an' a strong arm.' Dat was wat Mr. Bainrofe +spounded to de ossifer, an' he 'peared fused-like an' flustertied, for I +peeped fru de key-hole at 'em wen dey wus talkin'.' An,' sez he, 'dis +heah paper does want de secon' seal, sure enough, since I 'xamine it, +wat you is so 'tickiler 'bout; but dat can easily be reconstructified, +an' I'll be sartin sure to be here airly to-morrow morning. In de mean +while, my man, McDermot, shall keep de house in his eye, an' mus' hab de +liberty of lodgment.' + +"Den Mr. Bainrofe he say, 'Oh, sartinly--your man, McDermot, am welcome +to his bite an' sup, an' all he kin fine out'--an' he laughed, an' dey +parted, mighty pleasant-like, and den he called Mrs. Raymun' and Mass' +Gregory, an' I listened again. Dat's our colored way for reformation, +child. An' I heerd 'em--" + +"Dinah! Dinah! what are you muttering about--don't you hear Mrs. Raymond +knocking? Miss Monfort must be tired out of your nonsense. What keeps +you there so long?" + +"I'se spounding another speritual to Miss Miramy, an', wen I gits 'gaged +in dat way, I disregards airthly knockin'. I'se listenin' to de angels +hammerin' overhead, an' Mrs. Raymun' will hab to wait a spell--he! he! +he!" + +"Oh, go at once, Dinah, and open the door for Mrs. Raymond. I can write +your song down just as well another time," I remonstrated, taking up and +laying down my note-book as I spoke, so as to display my ostensible +occupation to the peering eyes of Mrs. Clayton (now sitting bolt upright +in her bed, looking like a Chinese bonze), for the purpose of sweeping +in my position definitively. + +"That will do, Dinah. Now go and get Miss Monfort's bath ready," I +heard my dragoness say, after a short whispered communication from her +early visitor. It was the idea, probably, to remove me, as well as +Dinah, while the plot was being unfolded, and my bath-room, with its +closed door, promised security from quick ears and eyes to the brace of +conspirators now plotting their final blow. + +Once in that belfry, and truly might the sense of Dante's famous +inscription become my motto for life: "Here hope is left behind." + +I covered my eyes as I recalled that dreary, dreadful prison-house of +clock and bell, into which I had clambered once by means of a movable +step-ladder, rarely left there by the attendant, in order to rescue my +famished cat, shut up there by accident. I recollected the maddened look +of the creature, as it flew by me like a flash, frightened out of its +wits, Mrs. Austin had said, by the clicking of the machinery of the huge +clock, and the chiming of the responsive bell. Both were silent now, and +there was room enough for a prisoner's cot in that lonely and dismantled +turret as there once had been for a telescope and its rest, used for +astronomical purposes at long intervals by my father and a few of his +scientific friends, but finally dismantled and put aside forever. + +I could imagine myself a denizen, at the will of Bainrothe, of that +weird, gray belfry, shut up with that silent clock, in company with a +bed, a chair, and table, denied, perchance, even the comfort of a stove, +for fear the flue might utter smoke, and, with it, that kind of +revelation, said proverbially to accompany such manifestations; denied +books, even writing-materials, the sight of a human face, and furnished +with food merely sufficing in quantity and quality to keep soul and body +together! + +Could I resist this state of things? Could I sustain it and retain my +reason? No, I felt that the picture my fancy drew, if realized, would +make me abject and submissive, change me to a cowardly, cringing slave. +I was not made of the right stuff for martyrdom, only for battle, for +resistance, and would put forth my last powers in the effort to save +myself from the unendurable trials before me, even if destruction were +the consequence. A pistol-ball in my brain would he preferable to what I +saw awaiting me, should Bainrothe succeed in his stratagem, as I doubted +not he would do, if determined on it. I should know freedom in its true +sense never again, if that night were suffered to pass without its +redemption, if that belfry once were entered. + +As carelessly as I could I followed Dinah to the bath-room, ostensibly +to direct the temperature of the water, but really to draw out from her +all that was possible while the mood of communication possessed her, on +the subject so vital to me and my welfare. Life and death almost were +involved in her revelations, and I hastened to wind in the clew while it +lingered in my hand; for I knew that she was an eccentric as well as a +selfish creature, and might suddenly see fit to withdraw or snap its +thread. + +"Now, tell me about McDermot, Dinah, what sort of a look has he? Is he +large or small, light or dark, and does he smoke a pipe?" + +"He is a great big man, honey, wid red har an' sort ob chaney-blue eyes; +mos while, sometimes he rolls em up in his head, an' he smells mighty +strong of whisky. I tells you all; his bref mos knocked me down, but I +didn't see no pipe?" + +A discouraging account, truly; yet I persevered. It seemed my only hope +to enlist this man on my side, either through his sympathies or sense of +duty. I had no power to command his services on the side of his avarice. +The ring on my finger, the pledge of Wentworth's troth, a massive +circlet of chased gold, was all that remained to me in the shape of +valuables. I did not possess a stiver in that prison, nor own even the +clothes on my back. + +"Could you not take him a message from me, Dinah? It is his duty, you +know, to assist me; it is on my account, doubtless, he is placed here; +and hereafter I can reward him liberally, and you too. Just now, you +know, I am penniless." + +The woman stopped and looked at me, her small black irises mere points, +set in extensive, muddy-looking whites, not unfrequently suffused and +bloodshot. + +"I dun told the ossifer dar wus no one here you knows, answerin' to your +perscription." + +"But that was only a measure of safety for yourself; you surely do not +mean to take sides with my persecutors?" + +"I has nuffin at all to do wid it, at all," hunching her back; "I has +gib you far warnin' 'bout de laudamy an' der retentions, an' you mus' +fight it out yourself, chile! I is afraid to go one step furder; but de +debble sort o' tempted me dis mornin' to make a clean breast of der +doins. Ef you mentions it, do; I is retermined to reny ebbery word of +your ramification, and in dis here country a nigger's word, dey tells +me, goes jus' as fur as a pore white gal's, if not furder; 'sides dat, I +is gwine to swar favorable for my 'ployers, in course, at de +court-house--unless"--hesitating and leering in my face--"you sees, +honey, dey have not paid me yit--and mebbe dey won't, ef I displeases +'em, an' your gole watch is gone; an' den, Dinah would be lef' on de +shelf." + +"But I have other property, Dinah, other jewels, even. That watch was +very little compared to what I possess outside of these prison-walls, +and these possessions--" + +"Whar is dey, honey? 'a bird in dis han' am worf two dozen in a bush,' +as my ole masta used to say, wen de traders cum up to buy his corn an' +cotton, an' I always sawed de dollars come down mighty quick after dat +sayin' of his'n; for I used to watch round the dinin'-room pretty +constant an' close in dem days, totin' in poplar-chips an' corn-cobs for +kin'lin' an' litin' masta's long clay pipes--none ob de common sort, I +tells you--an' brushin' up de harf an' keepin' off de flies, and so +forf. You see I was a little shaver in dem days, an' masta liked my +Congo straction, an' petted me a heap, an' I never seed the cotton-field +till my ole masta died; den dey put me out ob de house, because Mass +Jack Dillard's father--dat was my ole mistis's own step-brother's secon' +son--he 'cused me ob stealin' his gole pencil-case wrongfully--like I +had any use fur his writin' 'tensils!" (indignantly). + +"Dinah," I adjured, cutting short the stream of her narrative, "for +God's sake, see Mr. McDermot, and tell him of my situation! He shall +have a thousand dollars to-morrow, and you also shall have money enough +to buy your whole family, and bring them hither, if you will but assist +me to escape _this_ night. Don't stand and look at me, woman, but act at +once, if you have a human heart. You must help me now, or never." + +"You mus' tink I's one ob de born fools, Miss Mirimy, to bl'eve all dat +stuff! Doesn't I know you loss all your trunks on de 'Scusco, an' wasn't +you a pore gal, teachin' white folks's chilluns fur a livin' before? I +has hearn all dat discounted since I come into dis 'stablishment. We +all knows as how teachers is de meanest kine of white trash gwine; +still, I specs you might'ly. You has been ob de quality; any nigger can +see dat wid half an eye open; an' you has got more sense in de end ob yo +little finger, ef you is crazy, dan all de res tied up in a bunch ob +fedders! Wat I does for you, chile, I does for lub ob yo purliteness" +(hesitating here). "You hasn't anoder ob dem gole-pieces anywhar, like +dat you gib me befo', has you? I'se bery bad off fur 'baccer, I is, +indeed, chile, an' de pay is mighty slow in dis house." + +"I have not a five-penny bit, Dinah, not one copper cent, if it were to +save my life or yours." + +"Is dat ring of yours good guinea gole, honey?" asked the mercenary +creature, leering at it. "It looks mighty bright and pretty, it does +dat! But mebbe its nuffin but pinchbeck, after all." + +"It looks what it is, Dinah"--and, after a moment's consideration, I +drew it from my finger. "If I give you this, will you promise to deliver +my message to McDermot faithfully?" + +"Sartain sure, honey, but tell me again wat it is; I forgits de small +patticklers." + +"Get me my pencil and a scrap of paper, and let me write it down for him +to read; or no, this might involve observation, detection. I must rely +upon your memory, Dinah, which I have reason to know is good. Now, +listen and understand me. I promise to Mr. McDermot one thousand +dollars, to be paid down to-morrow morning, if he will help me to escape +to-night. And I promise you liberty for all of your family, and security +for yourself, if you will assist me, or even be silent, and let me go +without a word, without informing. Do you understand this, Dinah? If so, +repeat it to me low, yet distinctly." + +She obeyed me, evincing wonderful shrewdness in her way of putting the +affair, as she said she meant to do, in approaching McDermot. + +"And do you believe me, Dinah, now that I have promised so solemnly to +pay these rewards?" + +"Dats neider here nor dar, Miss Mirim, so dat McDermot bleves you, dat's +enough; wat dis chile bleves am her own business. Dem Irish am mighty +stupid kine ob creeturs; dey swallows down mos' any thing you chooses to +tell 'em." + +A voice without, uplifted at this juncture, as if it had long been +expending itself in ineffectual appeals, now summoned Dinah, harshly and +emphatically. + +The Lady Anastasia had departed, after a brief interview, and Mrs. +Clayton, unable to leave her bed, felt naturally anxious to ascertain +the cause of Dinah's prolonged ministry on her fellow-prisoner. + +I heard only the words, "De pattikalerest lady I ebber come acrost about +de feel of water, an' I is done tired out, I is--" The rest was lost, as +Dinah vanished from the apartment of the invalid. In the next moment, I +heard the key turned, and the outlet bolt drawn, and the growl of the +surly sable watch-dog without, who, in Mrs. Raymond's absence, +officiated as our jailer and Cerberus. + +It was early evening when Dinah returned, for she brought to us but two +meals at this season, the necessary food for Ernie being always ready in +a closet. She came ushered in, as usual, by Mrs. Raymond, who bore with +her on this occasion what she called savory broth, concocted, by her own +fair hands, for the benefit of her suffering parent. While Clayton was +employed in supping this mutton abomination, with a loud noise peculiar +to the vulgar, and Mrs. Raymond whispering inaudible words above the +bowl, I was ostensibly employed in tearing a croquet to pieces with my +fork, while I interrogated Dinah, in a low, even voice, between each +shred, unintelligible, I knew, in the next room, through its monotony, +on the success of her mission, and caught her muttered rather than +murmured replies eagerly in return. + +"Did you speak with him, Dinah?" + +"Dere was no use, honey; Bainrothe done bought him up. I peaked fru de +key-hole, and seen de gole paid down wid my own two precious eyes. Dar's +no mistake about dat," shaking her head dolefully. "All you has to do +now, honey, is to keep wide awake, an' duly sober, as ole masta used to +say, 'frain 'ligiously from de tea or coffee, one or de udder, dat she +will offer you 'bout eight o'clock dis ebenin', or mebbe dey will send +it up by me, I can't say yit. Howsomever, you needn't to drink dat stuff +arter wat you knows; an' ef dey goes to take you forcefully off to de +belfry in de night-time, you kin skreech ebbery step ob de way. Dat's de +bes plan, chile, wat I kin project for your resistance; but I'se afeard +dar is no hopin' you, any way we can fix it." + +"Thank you, Dinah, you have done your best, no doubt; don't sell my +ring, though; I shall want it back some day." + +"La, chile, I done 'sposed ob it aready, an' dey give me a poun of +backer an' a gole-piece fur it. It was good gole an' no mistake. I tells +you all," adding aloud, "an' now, Miss Mirim, I has tole you ebbery +syllable. I disremembered ob dat speritual ar. I is sorry you doesn't +like dese crockets, fur de madame made un wid her own clean red hands." + +"Say white hands, you old limb of Satan, or I shall be after you with a +mop," cried the laughing voice of Mrs. Raymond from the side of the sick +woman's bed, betraying at once how she had divided her attention. Then, +advancing into my chamber, she added, as coolly as though she had been +suggesting a visit to the theatre: + +"Excuse me, Miss Monfort, for intruding, but I am about to ask you +whether it would be agreeable to you to be married to-night at ten +o'clock? This seems very sudden, but circumstances have forced the +arrangement on us all, and I assure you, from the bottom of my heart, it +is for both of us the preferable alternative of evils, as poor Sir Harry +Raymond would have said. Alas, my dear! shall I ever again have such a +helpmate as he was: so kind, so generous, so considerate"--and she +clasped and wrung her large, rosy hands. "A second marriage is often a +great sacrifice, and, in any case, a hazard, as I feel, as the time +draws near, very sensibly. But you seem confounded, and yet you must +have been somewhat prepared for this condition of things after your last +interview with Dr. Englehart?" + +The amazement of Dinah at this change in the programme, if possible, +exceeded my own. She did not understand, as I did, that it was a measure +prompted not only by humanity but self-interest, and that even the hard +heart of Basil Bainrothe preferred a compromise to such violence and +injustice as those he had otherwise meditated. Besides, what better or +more sensible mode than this could there be, according to his views, of +quashing the whole _esclandre_--quieting official inquiry as well as +public indignation? As the wife of Gregory, I should be, of course, +_forcat_ for life, walking abroad with the concealed brand and manacle, +afraid and ashamed to complain and acknowledge my condition, and +willing to condone every thing. + +I saw, at a glance, that my true policy was to feign a reluctant consent +to this proposition, and to determine later what recourse to take, as if +indeed any remained to me in that den of serpents. I would consider, as +soon as Mrs. Raymond was gone, what measures to pursue in order to elude +the vigilance of McDermot, the detective; and then, if all proved vain, +I could but perish! For I would have walked cheerfully over the burning +ploughshares of old, lived again through the hideous nightmare of the +burning ship and raft, nay, clasped hands with the spectre of La Vigne +himself, had it offered to lead me to purgatory, rather than have +married the knave, the liar, the half-breed Gregory! + +My resolution was soon made. + +"You will send me a suitable dress, I suppose," I said, calmly, "you +know I am a pauper here." + +"Yes, fortunately I have two almost alike. Which shall it be, a chally +or barege?" + +"It matters little, the color is all I care for. Let it be white; I have +a superstition about being married in colors." + +"So should I have, were this the first time, but, being a widow, I shall +wear a lavender-satin, trimmed with blond, made up for a very different +occasion." + +"Yes, that will be quite suitable. Well, the long agony is over at last, +and I am glad of it," and I drew a deep, free breath. + +"You will have to sign the papers before you come down-stairs. Mr. +Bainrothe told me to say this to you, and to ask you to have them ready; +they will be witnessed below with the marriage, and at nine, +_precisely_, expect me to appear with your gown, and make your toilet." + +"Will not Bridget Maloney do as well?" I asked, desperately. She, at +least, I thought, may be compassionate. + +"It is strange you should know of her at all, or she of you. It is that +girl, then, who has given us all this trouble," going to the bed, "when +I did not suppose she knew of her existence. Explain this, Clayton, if +you can." + +"I suppose Ernie, who is fond of her, has mentioned her name to Miss +Monfort; she thinks his mother is sick up-stairs, but knows no more, I +am certain; besides, it's Dr. Englehart's establishment--such things are +to be expected, and surprise no one of the attendants. Bridget is kept +busy among them all." The farce was to be kept up, it seemed, to the +end. + +Old Dinah was evidently quaking in her shoes, and began to see her +error, as she glanced reproachfully at me, but no further revelation +seemed to be expected. It was, indeed, to divert, partly, immediate +suspicion from one I still hoped to make my tool, that I mentioned the +Irish girl at all, or craved her presence, but I soon found how futile +in one instance was this trust. No sooner had Mrs. Raymond turned to +depart, than Dinah followed her, protesting against being locked up the +whole evening with the invalid, and begging leave to go out for an hour +or two on business of her own, which she declared important. + +"But Miss Monfort may need you in making her preparations," remonstrated +Mrs. Raymond, "and Clayton and Ernie will want your attention; besides, +fires will go down if not constantly mended, this cold evening." + +"Dar's plenty of coal in de box, an' de tongs, wid claws, wat Ernie is +so fond of handlin', ready and waitin' for dem wat's strong enough to +use dem if dey choose, an' tea in de caddy, an' de kittle on de trivet, +jes filled up, de brass toastin'-fork on de peg in de closet, 'sides +bread an' butter, an' jam, an' new milk on de shelf, an' I is 'bliged to +go anyway, case my ticklerest friend am dyin' ob de numony--I is jes got +word; but at nine o'clock" (and she looked maliciously at me) "percisely +Dinah 'll be in dis pickin' patch--he! he! he! can't possumbly cum no +airlier." + +In a flash I saw the advantage her prolonged absence would give me, +unless, indeed, she had become my confederate, so I beheld her depart +with a feeling of relief which reacted in the next moment to positive +helplessness and terror as the bolt was drawn behind her. What could I +do? What was there to be done? For a time I sat mute and crushed by +consideration; then casting myself on my bed I slept for half an hour, +the kind of slumber that confusion generates, and yet I woke refreshed, +calmed, comforted, and with a clearly-formed resolution and plan of +action. I rose and approached Mrs. Clayton, whose groans, perhaps, +aroused me, and, as I stood beside her bed, the clock in the dining room +below struck six. I had still three hours for hope--for endeavor, before +the circle of flame should close hopelessly around me forever! Three +hours--were they not enough? Could I not compel them to concentration? + +A cup of strong tea was hastily drawn and swallowed--another made for, +and administered by my hand to, Mrs. Clayton, with toast _ad +libitum_,--a tedious process--and afterward Ernie's supper prepared and +eaten--all in less than half an hour. By seven he was in bed and asleep, +and I had taken my seat by Mrs. Clayton, for the purpose, apparently, of +merciful ministry to her condition--a piece of self-abnegation, as it +seemed, and as she felt it, scarcely to be expected on my blissful +marriage night. + +"I feel very sorry for you; you suffer so, Mrs. Clayton," I had said, as +I drew a chair beside her bed. + +"And I for you, Miss Monfort; our fate seems equally hard, but we must +bear it;" and she groaned heavily and closed her eyes, evidently in +great pain. + +"I have come to that conclusion, also, after a bitter struggle; physical +pain is not so easily borne, however; the body has little philosophy." + +"I thought all this was over," she rejoined, abstractedly, "when my +hands were drawn as you see them by neuralgia ten years since. But I did +not suffer as much then, I believe, as I do now; besides, I was younger, +happier, better able to bear pain." + +"Yes, that is true; the old should be at rest," at least my sense of +justice whispered this; then, after a pause: "Does my rubbing ease your +shoulder, Mrs. Clayton?" + +"Somewhat--it is my head to-night, however, that troubles me chiefly. Be +good enough to press my temples. Ah, that is great relief! You are very +kind, Miss Monfort; yet, in reviewing the past, I hope you will not find +that I have been wanting to you in my turn. I trust we shall part in +peace and meet hereafter as friends. But you do not answer me." + +"Pardon me, I was thinking. This is a crisis, you know--this night +decides my fate for good or ill, all rests with merciful God!" + +"Yes, all--of ourselves we are helpless, of course. It is a comfort to +me, I confess, as I lie here, to feel that I have never willingly +injured a fellow-being; to think that I--but, bless my soul, Miss +Monfort, you must not hold me down in that way! you would not, I trust. +But even if you did--no key this time, the door is fast without!" + +"Oh, not for worlds! be still, the pain will pass. I have the gift, you +know, of soothing physical suffering. There, rest, you must not stir; +give yourself up to me, if you can--slumber will come." + +"It must not come--see, we are all alone!" + +Her glazing eye--her slower breathing began already to attest the +influence of the electric fluid, so potent in my veins, so wanting in +her own, both from temperament and disease, yet she resisted bravely and +long, and, even when her limbs were powerless, her spirit rebelled +against me in murmured words of defiant opposition; but this, too, +yielded finally to silence and to stupor; and she slept the deep, calm, +unmistakable slumber caused by magnetism. + +Then, again, I went through the experiment of the preceding night, and +strove to awaken her. + +"Get up," I said, and yet without willing that she should do so. "Mrs. +Raymond is here to show you her marriage-dress, and Mr. Bainrothe +calls." + +"Tell them to let me sleep; don't--don't--disturb me. I am so happy--so +peaceful. It is sweet, too, to think that she will be married at last. +Poor thing! it was no fault of hers, though--no fault. A young actress +is exposed to so many temptations, and it was better so--Harry Raymond's +mistress." + +That secret would never have escaped her devoted lips had she been able +to retain it. + +As carefully as the eyes of the dead are closed, I drew down her gaping +lids, and turned away. As I did so, the clock struck eight. Fatima never +listened more anxiously to the toll of parting time than I did that +night; but, alas for me! no sister Anne kept watch on the tower; no +brother hastened to arrest the sword. I was deserted by all save God and +desperation. One hour comprised my fate! Very quietly I closed the door +between Mrs. Clayton's room and my own. The bolt was on the other side, +so I could not secure my privacy, even for a moment, should she chance +to wake, or should Mrs. Raymond or Dinah return unexpectedly. As rapidly +as I could, I altered my dress--this time above my clothes--threw on the +black silk frock and mantilla prepared for me on shipboard, tied a dark +veil over my head, an old woolen scarf about my throat, provided for +Ernie's sore-throat and croup, and stood equipped for my enterprise. + +Neither bonnet, nor gloves, nor boots, did I possess--Mrs. Raymond's +loan having long since been condoned on behalf of some one else, and my +clothing, in my captivity, had been contrived to suit my circumstances. + +Wheeling the bedstead very gently on its noiseless castors a few inches +from the wall, I insinuated myself between them, and, sheltered by the +head-board, loosened again the slightly-adhering covering of paper that +concealed the door, and fitted into the key-hole the well-oiled wooden +key, which once before had proved its efficiency. It did not fail me +now, in my hour of extremity, for a moment later I had turned and +removed it from its socket, stepped forth upon the landing, and relocked +without the door of my prison; but, perhaps, with too much of nervous +haste, too little caution, for, to my inexpressible confusion, the +handle of the instrument of my emancipation remained in my hand, broken +off at the lock, and useless forever more. + +In delaying probable pursuit from within, I had cut off all possibility +of my own retreat in case of failure. My bridges were literally burned +behind me, and I had no alternative left between flight and detection. +And yet there was something in the situation that, inconsistently +enough, made me smile, albeit with a trembling heart. + +I shook my head drearily, as a couplet from Collins's "Camel-Driver," +with its strange appropriateness, irresistibly crossed my brain. + +Why is it that, in times like these, such conceits beset us, such +comparisons arise? Does the quality called presence of mind find root in +the same source that impels us to apt quotation?-- + + "What if the lion in his rage I meet? + Oft in the dust I see his printed feet." + +I gained fresh heart from that trivial diversion of thought, and stood +quietly contemplating alternately the hall below and that above (both of +which were visible from my place on the intermediate platform; all was +still in both of these wide corridors), to make sure of the safety of my +enterprise; and now, once more my foot was on the brink of those +mysterious stairs which led, I felt, to doom or to liberty. I commenced, +very cautiously, to descend them. The study-door at their foot was +closed, and all seemed silent within. The murmur of voices, and the +remote rattling of china proceeding from the ell behind the hall, +encouraged me to believe that on this bitter night the family was +concentrated, for greater comfort, in the supper-room. + +With my hand on the baluster, pausing at every step, I crept quietly +down the stairway; then, as if my feet were suddenly winged with terror, +I darted by the study-door, flew lightly over the carpeted hall, and +found myself, in another moment, secure within, the small enclosed +vestibule into which the door of entrance gave. My worst misgivings had +never compassed the terrific truth. At this early hour of the evening, +not only was the front door locked, but the key had been withdrawn. This +was despair. + +My knees gave way beneath me, and I sank like a flaccid heap in the +corner, against one of the leaves of the small folding-door that divided +the arched vestibule from the long entry, and which was secured to the +floor by a bolt, while the other one was thrown back. Crouched in the +shadow, powerless to move or think, I heard, with inexpressible terror, +the door of the study open, and the voice and step of Bainrothe in the +hall, approaching me. + +Had he heard me? Would he come? Was I betrayed? + +I felt my hair rise on my head as these questions rang like a tocsin +through my brain, and I think, at that moment, I had a foretaste of the +chief agony of death. + +They were answered by Bainrothe himself, as he paused midway between the +study-door and my place of refuge; and again I breathed--I lived. + +"I was mistaken, 'Stasia, it is not he! the wind, probably; and that +marble looks so cold--so uninviting--I shall not explore it. He has a +key, you know, and can come when he likes; for my part, I shall go in to +supper while the oysters are hot. Do as you like, though." + +"Had we not better wait? You know he is sure to come to-night, bad as +the weather is, on account of that affair. It was late when Wentworth +notified him." + +This was the rejoinder made from within the study, in which I +recognized the voice of Mrs. Raymond, clear and shrill. + +"Well, have it as you please. If you prefer courtesy to comfort, you +shall be gratified; but what's the use of ceremony with Gregory? He will +be here in twenty minutes, Mr. Bainrothe; but don't wait. I shall have +time to sup with him before I go up-stairs, you know. I believe I will +stay where I am until he comes, and finish taking in the poor thing's +wedding-gown. Well, any thing is better than removal to the belfry"--and +I thought I heard a sigh. + +"A matter of mere temporary necessity, you know, only she might have +frozen in the interval," said Bainrothe, jauntily, as he walked up the +hall to the door of the dining-room, which I heard him open and let fall +against its sill again. It closed with a spring, and in the next moment +the study-door was also softly shut, and all was still. + +My resolution was promptly taken. The folding leaves of the inner +door--that which divided the marble-paved vestibule from the carpeted +entry--against one of which I had been leaning, I well knew worked to +and fro on pulleys which obeyed the drawing of a cord and tassel hanging +at one side, and thus they could readily be closed with a touch by any +one standing in the vestibule as they opened out into the hall on which +side was the latch and bolt. I recalled this quaint arrangement with a +quickness born of emergency, as one that might serve me now, and +speadily possessed myself of the tassel at the extremity of the +controlling cord. Thus armed, and praying inwardly for strength and +courage, and wherewith to carry out my scheme successfully, I took my +stand in one of the two niches (just large enough for the purpose) in +the door-frame, preferring, of course, that next to the lock, prepared +to darken the vestibule at the first approach of the expected guest (I +was afraid to do it before, lest attention might be called to it from +within the house), and make my escape by rushing past him ere he could +recover himself as he entered in the gloom. + +The hazard was extreme, the result uncertain, the effort almost +foolhardy, it may be thought; but the storm and darkness were in my +favor, and I was fleet of foot, as were not all of my pursuers, as far +as I could foresee who these might be. + +Momently I grew cooler, more determined, more calm, more desperate, more +regardless of consequences; and now the culmination of endeavor +approached in the shape of the sound of stamping feet upon the icy +platform of the steps which they had softly ascended, and the uncertain +fitting of a dead-latch key in its dark socket, the feeling for the knob +with half-frozen fingers, and finally the sudden and violent throwing +forward and open of the door into the darkened vestibule, for I had +drawn the cord at the first symptoms of Gregory's advent, which yet took +me by surprise. I had closed the inner doors, it is true, but paralyzed +with sudden terror I had taken no advantage of the darkness thus evoked, +and, as the tall form of the expected and expectant bridegroom staggered +in, literally blown forward by the tempest, with introverted umbrella, +and wet and streaming garments (dimly discerned in the gloom) that +brushed against me as he passed, I continued to stand transfixed to +stone in the niche I still occupied. + +The dream in which La Vigne had prophesied my failure flashed over me +like lightning, and my knees trembled beneath me, yet I still clung +spasmodically to the cord I held, and with such desperate force that, +when Gregory pushed against the door, he believed it latched within, and +so desisted from further effort. + +"Dark as Erebus," he muttered, "and on such a night! Confound such +hospitality! I suppose I must go back and ring;" and in pursuance of +this idea he again suddenly opened the front-door, which, swinging +violently back as he turned his face within, once more afforded me the +golden opportunity so lately lost. Quick as thought I dropped the cord I +held, and in the sudden gust the leaves of the inner door, thus +released, flew open and impelled my foe irresistibly forward. With his +flapping coat and hat he drifted into the lighted hall before the +driving blast, and, roused to instantaneous action, I slid from the +niche I filled to the icy platform without, and swift and silent as a +spectre sped down the sleety steps to the outward darkness. I was free! + +A moment after, I heard the door slammed heavily after me, while I +crouched by the gate-post for concealment. + +Rising up, I mutely blessed the friendly portal that made me an outcast +in the storm-swept streets from which the very dogs shrank terrified. + +One moment, one only, I paused as I passed by my father's gate-way, +crowned with stone lions that glimmered in the gloom. The force of +association and of contrast shook me with emotion--I could not enter +there. My own roof afforded me no shelter from the biting blast; but +squares away, with a comparative stranger, I must seek (if I ever gained +it on that dreadful night) a refuge from the storms and sure protection +from my foes. + +I moved rapidly along toward the tall street-lamp that diffused a dim +and murky light from its frost crusted lantern at the corner of the +square, and before I reached it I encountered the first danger of my +undertaking. + +Protected, fortunately, by the shadow of the high stone-wall near which +I walked rapidly, I met Dinah, so nearly face to face that the whiff of +the pipe she was smoking was warm upon my cheek. Wrapped in her old +cloth shawl and quilted hood, she muttered as she went, and staggered +too, I thought, though here the northeast wind, that swept her along +before it, might have been at fault, while, blowing in my face, it +retarded my progress. + +I passed her unchallenged, but, glancing back just as I turned the +corner, I became aware that she was retracing her steps. I fled rapidly +on until I reached the shelter of a friendly nook between two houses +(well remembered of old), when, turning again to gaze, I saw her +standing immovable as a statue beneath the lamp-post, evidently looking +in the direction I had taken. There seemed no way of escape now save in +persistent flight. My place of concealment might be too readily detected +by a cautious observer, a savage on the war-trail. Should Dinah herself +pursue me, I knew my speed would distance her; but, that prompt pursuit +of some kind was imminent, I knew from that moment. + +My aim was to reach the house of Dr. Pemberton, no intermediate one +presenting itself as that of an acquaintance of whom I could ask +shelter, and belief in the truth of my assertions. Of this house I +remembered the position with tolerable accuracy. It formed one, I knew, +of a long block of buildings extending from one street to another, and +was near the centre. + +I had been there only on rare occasions, when his niece abode with him, +for he dwelt ordinarily in widowed solitude, although our intimacy was +that of relatives rather than of patient and physician. + +For this desired goal I strained every nerve, every muscle, every +faculty, on that never-to-be-forgotten night of bitter, freezing cold, +and driving sleet and blast, which seemed to proclaim itself, in every +howling gust, "The wind Euroclydon!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +At first, excitement and terror winged my feet; but even these refused, +after I had gone a few squares, to do their friendly office. + +Bareheaded, but for a filmy veil, soon thoroughly drenched through; +barehanded and almost barefooted, for my thin silk slippers and +stockings formed not, after my first few steps, the slightest impediment +to wet or cold, I felt that I must perish by the wayside. The sleety +storm drove sharply in my face, rendered doubly sensitive to its rigor +by long absence from outward air. My insufficient clothing clung closely +about me, freezing in every fold, and I glided rather than walked along +the icy pavement, scarcely lifting my stiffened feet, or having power to +do so. + +One stern hope--it almost seemed a forlorn one--now possessed me to the +exclusion of all else; one prayer trembled on my quivering lips--that I +might reach my destination, if only to tell my story and drop dead a +moment after. + +Yet I think, in spite of this resolve--this prayer--that, had a friendly +door been opened on the way, an area even emitting light and warmth, I +should have instinctively turned aside and, at any risk, pleaded for +shelter, both from storm and foeman. + +In those days that seem far back in the march of luxury, because of the +vast impetus of human momentum, stores were closed early, and the +primitive family tea-table still existed which marked the assemblage of +the household around the evening lamp and hearth. + +I remember the closed, inhospitable look of the houses past which I +sped--the solid wooden shutters, then universal, which closed from the +wayfarer every evidence of internal life, and the cold sheen of the +icy-white marble steps, made visible by dim lamp-light. + +I gained a street-corner not very far, as it seemed to me, from my place +of destination. Yet, until I glanced across the way, I was uncertain, +and, but for the friendly refuge this opportunity presented, I think I +must have faltered and perhaps fallen and frozen to death on the +road-side. + +To my bewildered and disordered brain, Aladdin's palace seemed suddenly +to rise before me in that wilderness of sealed houses and uninhabited +streets; for, as I have said before, the very dogs had crept away that +night into secure corners, and not even a pariah chimney-sweep, with his +dingy blanket drawn close around him, nodded and dozed by a watch-box or +slept on a door-step. + +I crept across the space that divided me from this cynosure of warmth +and luxury, as a poor, draggled moth might do, to bask in the +revivifying light of an astral lamp, attracted beyond my power to +resist, to pause before the resplendent window, rich in green and purple +and amber rotund vases, whose transparent contents were set forth and +revealed by fiery jets of gas, toward which I feebly stretched my +half-frozen fingers. + +There was a splendid vision, also, of goldfish, in glass globes, jars of +leaden rock-work, baskets of waxen fruits and flowers, crystal bottles +containing rose and amber essences; but, above all, there was +light--there was heat. + +With one greedy, insatiate gaze my eyes swept in the details of this +mimic Eden, and, in another moment, my hand turned the knob of the +ground-glass door near the window, and I found myself in paradise! + +Rest, shelter, heat--these must I have or perish, and, but for the +timely refuge of this thrice-blessed apothecary's shop, I might have +left this retrospect unwritten! + +I staggered to a chair, and seated myself, unbidden, by the almost +red-hot stove, and cowered above it for a time, oblivions of all else. + +Then I looked timidly around me. + +The master of this Eden was standing, at the moment when he first caught +my eyes, holding up a bottle, scrutinizingly, between his face and the +light, one of many of the same sort that a lad, in a long, white apron, +was engaged in washing. + +The odor of the various drugs and essences over which he presided formed +an aromatic atmosphere singularly suggestive of incense, as did his +costume, that of a high-priest of the temple; but, very soon discarding +a gray-linen cape or talma, worn for the protection of his speckless +coat, and tossing a bundle of corks rather disdainfully to his +assistant, the head of the establishment came politely forward, standing +on the other side of the stove, with clasped hands, expectantly. + +"You will tell me your errand here when you are quite ready," he said, +kindly. "Do rest and warm yourself first. The stove has a narcotic +tendency when one has just come out of cold like this! The thermometer +has fallen twenty degrees since noonday; but that is only half the +trouble. Hem! This sleet and wind are beyond any former experience of +mine at this season." + +I heard the words of the speaker as if bound in a dreadful dream, but +they were clearly understood, and now I made an effort at utterance, but +failed, until after repeated endeavors, to enunciate one word. Yet I +noted distinctly, and even with a nice discrimination of scrutiny, the +red-haired and bright-eyed man, portly and somewhat pompous-looking, +with his plump hands folded over his vest, who stood before me, looking +pityingly down on my suffering face. + +After a time I gathered up my forces sufficiently to inquire, being +quite thawed and comforted by the reviving heat of the apartment, how +far it might be to the house of Dr. Pemberton, who resided in the block +of houses known as Kendrick's Row, on Maple Street. + +"It is nearly a square and a half, miss, by street measurement just now, +as, on account of changes, this is impassable," was the prompt reply. +"Scarcely half a square by the alley that runs from my back-door, after +a short turn, straight through to Maple Street; and, if it is only +question of a message, I can send Caleb, so that you may await the +coming of the doctor in comfort, in this emporium. He always uses his +gig for night-visits, and will, no doubt, be happy to carry you home in +his wolfskin." + +"Thanks--there is no question of a medical visit. I have very important +business with him. I must see him in his own house. I will go without +further delay. But, perhaps"--lingering a moment--"you would be so good +as to suffer Mr. Caleb to show me the short way you spoke of? I shall +not mind going through the alley at all." + +I rose prepared to depart, and glanced beseechingly at Caleb, who laid +down his bottle uncorked, and folded his arms with an approving knightly +bow, unperceived by his employer. + +"We have just had a similar inquiry as to Dr. Pemberton's locality; I +mean," said the master of the emporium, without replying to my request, +"on the part of a very distinguished-looking personage--I might say, +well got up in the fur and overcoat line--and, had you come in a few +moments earlier, you might have had his escort; or perhaps you are on +his track now--probably one of his party?" hesitatingly. "No! Well, it +is a strange coincidence, to say the least--very strange--as the doctor +is so well known hereabouts. As to going out in the storm again, I have +my misgivings, miss, for you, when I look at the flimsiness of your +attire and its drenched condition. I can't see, indeed, how a +delicate-looking lady like yourself ever held her own against this +terrific wind. Eolus seems to have lost his bags! But, perhaps you had +an escort to the corner?" + +"No--no--no--I came quite alone! Oh, for pity's sake, put me on my way +and let me go! My business is most urgent!" I hesitated--my heart sank. +Had Bainrothe been before me to spirit the doctor away by some feigned +message of need, of distress, to which no inclemency of weather could +close that benevolent medical ear? And did he lie in wait for me on the +way?" + +"Perhaps I had, after all, better go alone," I continued; "it might be +too great an inconvenience"--and I moved toward the ground-glass door. + +"Not if you will accept my services, miss," said Caleb, timidly, pushing +away the remaining corks as he spoke, and glancing furtively at his +master. + +"How often must I remind you, Caleb Fink," said the owner of the +emporium, "that your sphere is circumscribed to your duties? Attend to +those phials, and drain them well before you bottle the citrate of +magnesia. The last was spoiled by your unpardonable carelessness. I have +not forgotten this!" + +And again, with a deprecatory look at me, Caleb Fink subsided into a +nonentity. + +"Truly has the great and wise Dr. Perkins remarked that 'the women of +America are suicidal from the cradle to the grave!' I will give you one +of his pamphlets, miss, to take away with you, and you will be convinced +that slippers are serpents in disguise in winter weather! The wooden +shoes of Germany rather! Ay, or even the _sabot_ of France! You must not +stir another step in those. Be seated, pray, and I will not detain you +long, while I procure a substitute or protection for such shams, worth +nothing in such Siberian weather.--Caleb, a word with you;" and he +whispered to his apprentice, who glided away, to return in a trice with +a pair of India-rubber overshoes, into which benign boats he proceeded +to thrust my unresisting feet, as I stood leaning on the counter; after +which a muffler was tied about my ears, and a heavy honey-comb shawl +thrown over my shoulders by the same expeditious hands. + +"Could you be always as spry, Caleb! Your gloves now--I shall need my +own"--and a pair of stalwart knitted mits were forthwith drawn over my +passive hands, in which my fingers nestled undivided and warm. + +"Now you look something like going for the doctor! My overcoat, +Caleb--gloves--fur-cape--cane! All hanging near the bed. There, we are +ready now for old Borealis himself, if he chooses to blow! But I +forget--God bless me, you are as pale as the ghost of Pompey, at +Philippi!--Caleb, the Perkins elixir--a glass!--Now, young lady, just +take it down at a gulp. It is the only alcoholic preparation that +Napoleon Bonaparte Burress ever suffered to pass his temperate lips. +Father Matthew does not object to it at all, I am told, on emergencies. +It may be had at this repository very low, either by the gross or +dozen."--speaking the last words mechanically, and he tendered me a +small glass of some nauseous, bittersweet, and potent beverage, that +coursed through my veins like liquid fire. + +"Thank you; it _is_ very comforting," I gasped, and, setting the glass +down on the counter, I covered my face with my hands and burst into +tears. + +The whole forlornness of my outcast and eleemosynary condition rushed +over me simultaneously with the flood of warmth caused by the Perkins +elixir, which nerved me the next moment for the encounter with the +elements. + +I saw the kindly master of the emporium turn away, either to conceal his +own emotion or his observation of mine, and Caleb stood trembling and +crying like a girl before me. + +I had shrunk, it may be remembered, from the description Sabra gave me +of McDermot, when I heard of his red hair and "chaney-blue eyes;" but to +this red-haired, hazel-eyed man I yearned instinctively, for there are +moral differences discernible in the temperament greater than any other, +and, when a red-haired man is tender-hearted, he usually usurps the +womanly prerogative, and gushes. + +But Caleb's sympathy touched me even more. + +"We will go now, if you please," I said, recovering myself by a strong +effort, and Napoleon B. Burress mutely tendered me his stout, +overcoated arm. "The short way you mentioned--let us go that way, if not +disagreeable to you," I pleaded. + +"Oh, no; it will be an absolute saving of time to me; but, I warn you, +the alley is narrow and dark!" + +"Never mind; I prefer the short cut, be it what it may. Time is every +thing to me." + +We passed through the shop, threaded a narrow entry, opened a back-door, +which gave upon a strip of paved yard, leading in turn to a back-gate, +through which we emerged into a dark and dirty-looking alley. + +But first the work of unlocking a padlock, which confined a chain, had +to be effected, and, while Mr. N.B. Burress was thus unfastening his +back-gate preparatory to egress, I stood gazing back, Eurydice-like, in +the place I had left, for the doors of the long entry stood open, +revealing the shop beyond and its illuminated window. + +Standing thus, I saw, as through a vista and in a perfect ecstasy of +terror, the ground-glass shop-door open, and two well-known forms in +succession block its portals--those of Gregory and Bainrothe! Would +Caleb send them on our track, or would the better part of valor come to +his aid and save me from their clutches? + +A thought occurred to me. "Mr. Burress," I said (I had retained his name +with its remarkable prefix), "will you not lock the gate outside? I can +wait patiently until you secure your premises--and--and bring away the +key." + +"I had meant to leave it here until my return, but you are right," +speaking indulgently. "I suppose burglars are abroad on nights like +this," and he quietly relocked the alley-gate. "You are very +considerate," he said, dryly, after we had gone a few yards in profound +silence, "but had I not better return for a lantern?" + +"Oh, not for worlds! Faster--faster, Mr. Burress, and Heaven will reward +you! Never mind the stones--the snow--the mud--so that we get there +first! Yes, I see where the lane turns; I see very well in the +dark--never fear--only do not delay--I am so glad you locked the +alley-gate. They cannot come that way." + +"Of whom are you afraid, poor young lady? Nobody would harm you, I am +sure; such a gentle, tender thing as you seem to be!" + +"Oh, yes! Fiends are on my track! Don't let them get possession of me +again, Mr. Burress, I am pursued--yes--faster--faster!" + +"But what has startled you, poor thing, since we left the Repository? +You seemed quite calm after the Perkins elixir--and those tears. Ah! I +understand!" and he coughed several times significantly. "The doctor +will set all right, I suppose, when I give you into his hands. I am glad +I came with you myself--courage, we shall soon be there!" + +"Yes--yes--he is my only hope! I will explain all when we are safe with +him. It is not as you think! I have no strength now. Don't question me +further, it exhausts me to talk. Just drag me along." + +And silently and valiantly did he betake himself to his task. The +noisome alley was threaded, and again we emerged into the sleety, +lamp-lit street, a few doors from the corner of that block, in the +centre of which Dr. Pemberton resided. + +As we approached the friendly threshold, the exact situation of which +was familiar to my companion, he pointed it out triumphantly with his +stick. + +"We shall soon be there," he reiterated, "no need for hurry now." But as +he spoke I saw a carriage turn the corner we were facing, and again I +urged on my lagging escort to his utmost speed. I ran up the sleety +steps in advance of him, and rang the bell with convulsive energy. Its +summons was answered promptly, but not a second too soon, for, as the +door opened to admit me, the carriage paused before the door, and two +men leaped from it, one of whom, the taller, thrusting Burress aside, +rushed up the steps after me with outstretched arms. + +I had found refuge in the vestibule, and slammed the door in his +face--closing, as it did, with a spring-lock--before he reached the +platform. Then turning to his companion, he fled down to the street +again, with the cry that reached my ear distinctly, of "Baffled, by +God!" on his profane lips, and the twain drove off as rapidly as they +had come. + +A moment later a feeble ring at the door, and a voice from without, +assuring the inmates that it was only N.B. Burress, and conjuring them +not to be alarmed, caused him to be admitted at once by the house-maid, +and shown into the same small front study into which she had conducted +me to await the doctor's appearance. + +"What name shall I give? The doctor is engaged," said the house-maid, +lingering. + +"If one at all, merely let me know when he is ready to see me. I am +tired and cold, and can wait patiently by this good fire." + +"It may be some time, miss; would you like a cup of hot coffee, you and +this gentleman? The doctor has just had his supper, and there is a pint +or more left in the urn." + +"Thanks--nothing could be more welcome," and the house-maid +disappeared. + +"That is the way of this house--patients are always entertained, if in +need of refreshment," said Mr. Burress, advancing to the chimney, while +he rubbed his hands in a self-gratulatory manner, then expanded them +before the bright glare that filled every pore with warmth. + +I was tremulous, and silent, and half exhausted, and he seemed to take +this in at a friendly glance, for he made none of those inquiries that I +knew were burning on his inquisitive lips; but after a few moments of +further enjoyment before the grate, and having duly turned himself as on +a spit, so as to absorb every ray of heat possible, he betook himself to +an arm-chair and a book, near the drop-light on a corner table, the soft +rustling of the turning leaves of which had a most soothing effect on my +nerves. + +"I shall only stay a few minutes," he said, apologetically. "I wish, +however, to see you safe in Dr. Pemberton's hands before I leave you, as +a sort of duty, you know, you being a charge of mine, and should you +need further escort--" + +"Oh, thank you, kindly; you have surely had enough trouble on my account +already." + +"Not a particle--only a pleasure, miss; but the push I got from your +pursuer upset me on the pavement and made sparks fly out of my eyes, +and, before I could gather myself up, they were back again in the +carriage and off. You will have to give me the man's name, miss--you +will, indeed, on my own account, when all your fatigue and fright are +over. Such favors are generally returned by me with compound interest." + +"Oh, be thankful you have not a compound fracture, Mr. Burress, and let +the fellow go. He is beneath contempt. But I shall not be satisfied +until Dr. Pemberton tells me himself that you are uninjured." + +"A lump as big as a potato--that's all, miss; not worth minding, I +assure you;" and he raised his hand to his occipital region. "An +application, before retiring to bed, of 'Prang's Blood and Life +Regenerator,' will make all right again. An astonishing remedy, miss, +which no family should be without, and which may be obtained cheaply by +the gross or dozen at my emporium. You have heard of Hercules Prang?" + +These were the last words I heard distinctly from the lips of Napoleon +B. Burress; nor were they answered, even by the brief "Never" which +might have proclaimed my ignorance of the very existence of that +demi-god of charlatanry, who, for the benefit of suffering mankind, had +condescended to compel his genius into the shape of a "revivifying +balsam." + +I had, with the aid of the house-maid, divested myself of my wet +overshoes and wrappings before the advent of my companion, and had +already ensconced myself in a deep Spanish chair, that stood invitingly +and with extended arms in one corner of the fireplace, when he advanced +to place himself on the rug for a general roasting. + +It was precisely twenty minutes past ten, Mr. Burress told me later, +when he detected, by stealing on tiptoe to my chair, and bending above +me, that I was sound asleep, and the mantel clock was on the stroke of +eleven when I awoke. + +In one corner of the room sat a stern statue of Silence, in the shape of +N.B. Burress, watching my repose, and from the adjoining office came the +murmur of voices that proved that the long interview between Dr. +Pemberton and his patient was still in progress. + +At this moment, one of the walnut-leaves of the small folding-door, +that formed a communication between the study and office of the good +physician, swung itself gently on its noiseless hinges, into the +position distinguished in description as "slightly ajar," and thus +remained fixed, after a fashion that spiritual mediums might have been +able to account for, on supernatural principles. + +The low murmur of voices then readily resolved itself into shaped words +and sentences, and, but for my deep languor, and the delightful sense of +security that possessed me, I should have risen and closed the obliging +door, to shut out unintentional communications. + +As it was, I lingered and listened, as one might do to the dash of +waves, or the rustling of branches, until suddenly the tones and meaning +of the principal interlocutor caused me to rise to my loftiest sitting +posture, and clasp the arms of the chair I occupied, while the strained +ear of attention drank in every syllable of the remainder of the +narrative, evidently drawing near its close. + +The low monotony of a continued discourse pervaded the voice, the manner +of the speaker, the thread of whose story was no longer interrupted, as +before, by the comments or questions of his companion, intent upon the +vital interest of the tale. + +"So I turned back at Panama," said the _raconteur_, probably, of a +series of adventures, "and abandoned my project altogether. The man +spoke with an air and tone of truth; the sketch was unmistakably hers. +The whole thing was full of _vraisemblance_, so to speak, and bore me +completely off my feet. The initials beneath the sketch of Christian +Garth were identical with her own. + +"He referred me to Captain Van Dorne for confirmation of the saving of +the few remaining passengers on the raft, and her presence in the ship +Latona, together with that of the child and negress. + +"I have seen Captain Van Dorne, and he admits the part he played, on the +representation of Bainrothe; and, through the evidence of a newspaper +advertisement, of the previous autumn, which had met his eye, to satisfy +the puerile scruples of this really good but ignorant man--going no +deeper than the surface in his code of morals--they were obliged to tear +out the record of their names, and take refuge temporarily in the +long-boat, before he would swear to Miriam, in her state-room, that +Bainrothe was not on board. + +"As to the _habeas corpus_ which would have gone into effect to-day, and +which the wretch managed to defeat by requiring an error to be corrected +in the writ, that no guiltless man would have observed, I fear sometimes +it will prove ineffectual if we wait for the morrow. My plan was to go +at midnight with a party of my friends to the house of this miscreant, +and take the law in my own hands; but, in this I could not stir, for the +reasons I have given you. Besides that, it was risking too much--her +safety and reputation. + +"She cannot be secretly removed, of course, for we have a detective in +the house able and strong, besides the old well-paid negress, both of +whom--" + +"Have played you false," I interrupted, rising impetuously, and throwing +back the loose leaf of the door, "and I am here to tell you this. O +friends, have you forgotten me?" + +And, rushing forward, I threw an arm around each of those dear necks, +weeping alternately on the shoulder of one and the other of the two men +I loved best in the world, and who, for some moments, sat silent and +amazed! + +Then Wentworth rose mutely, and clasped me to his breast, and silence +prevailed between us. It comprehended all. + +I think, when we meet again in heaven, after that severance which is +inevitable to those who wear a mortal shape, we may feel as we did then, +but never before! The rapture--the relief--the spiritual +ecstasy--surmounting, as on wings of fire, pain, fatigue, suspense, +anguish of mind and body--were in themselves lessons of immortality +beyond any that book or sage has issued from midnight vigil or earthly +tabernacle. + +Not until a new order of things is established, and we have done with +tribulation, tears, and death, shall we again know such sensations; nor +is it indeed quite certain that human heart and brain could twice +sustain them here below! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Reaction came at last! Life is full of bathos as well as pathos. An hour +later, we four companions in the rejoicing over this redemption, if +chiefly strangers before, were partaking cheerfully together of hot +coffee and oysters. The services of Mrs. Jessup had been called in--the +doctor's excellent old Quaker house-keeper--and, amid many "thous" and +"thees," she had served us a capital and expeditious supper. + +No one enjoyed the festive occasion more than Mr. Burress, who, on the +point of stealing lightly away after witnessing from the front study the +scene of recognition and meeting, had been arrested on the threshold by +Dr. Pemberton himself. + +Either to allow a full explanation between two long-parted lovers, or to +conceal his own emotion and get back his customary calm, our dear doctor +had seen fit to step into the front-study for a few minutes, and he +checked Mr. Burress, with his hand on the door-knob, with some very +natural questions as to the mode and time of our meeting, and ended by +requiring his presence at the slight collation he ordered at once. + +The part the worthy apothecary had played in my closing adventure; the +certainty that to his zeal and promptness I owed my immunity from +further captivity--for, had I walked around the square in the usual +way, the men at watch from the carriage-windows must have espied and +seized me--or, had we loitered in the alley, and arrived a moment later +at the central house of Kendrick Row, there is no doubt that they would +have been there to await my arrival, nor could Mr. Burress have saved me +from their clutches--the whole thing seemed especially providential; +but, as the efficient medium of each mercy, Napoleon B. Burress did, +indeed, seem to all present crowned with a perfect nimbus of glory. Dr. +Pemberton led him back to my presence with his arm encircling his +shoulder; Captain Wentworth shook his hand mutely but long, with his +eyes dimmed with tears, and words that found imperfect utterance, at +last compelling him to strange silence. + +"I thank you, I bless you," he said, at last. "I do not hope to be able +to return such services, but, what I _can do_, command." + +"And I to think that she was crazy all the time; escaped from the great +asylum a mile away. Sweetest creature, too, I ever saw in my life; and +Caleb thought so, too." + +The speaker brushed a briny drop or two from his eyes with the back of +his hand as he spoke; then, smiling archly, asked: + +"Can you forgive me, miss, for belying you so, even in thought? You see, +I have made a clean breast of it now; but such a pity!" + +"Forgive you?" And I advanced toward him, and put both my hands in one +of his large white extremities, and, before I knew what I was doing, I +had stooped over and kissed it, and was bathing it with my tears. + +"O miss! this is too much; it is, indeed!" said Napoleon B., blushing +to the roots of his hair, and withdrawing his hand with a +slightly-mortified air; "you nonplus me completely." + +"You see she was too much overcome, Mr. Burress, to speak otherwise than +this," said Wentworth, drawing me to his bosom. "You must honor this +expression of feeling as I do." + +"O sir! it is the greatest honor I ever received in my life; and she, +poor thing, like Penelope, tangled up in a web so long, and free at +last! Well, it is a great joy to me to think I helped a little to cut +the ropes." + +"Helped! Why, I owe every thing to you. Listen," and then as briefly as +I could I recounted the trials in store for me that very night--the +compulsory marriage, or the removal to the belfry-tower--one or the +other inevitable, and either of which must have made the proposed rescue +of the following day, on the part of Captain Wentworth and his friends, +in one sense or the other unavailing. As the wife of Gregory, or as the +prisoner of the turret, I should in one case have been morally, and in +the other physically, dead or lost forever! + +Mutely, and tearfully even, was my skill in setting forth the magnitude +of the wrong, from which Mr. Burress had been instrumental in saving me, +acknowledged by my audience, not excepting Jenny the house-maid, who, +arrested on the threshold, stood wiping her eyes with her neat cotton +apron in token of sympathy. + +"Caleb will be wondering what has become of me, and tired out of +watching if I don't go home at once," said Mr. Burress, after his +emotion had subsided, and accepting gracefully the civic crown with +which he had been metaphorically rewarded. Mine was in store, but how +could he dream of this? + +A statue of the Greek Slave, a copy made by a master-hand, soon adorned +his window, and his bride wore pearls of price, the joint gift of Miriam +and Wardour Wentworth, a twelvemonth later, when a mistress of the +emporium was brought home, much to the solace of Caleb, who was +remembered by us also, let me not forget to add. + +Truly kind and benevolent as he was, Napoleon Burress had a despotic +manner, which relaxed beneath the genial smile of Marian March. + +"I must go, indeed, my dear sir" (to Dr. Pemberton), "but this night +will be memorable in my annals. God bless you all! Farewell. Afraid of +an encounter? Not I Like Horatio Cockleshell of old, I learned to carry +pistols constantly about me when I had to pass the bridge every night as +a youngster. My parents lived in Hamilton village. I still keep up the +custom, and therefore pay my fine yearly to the council." + +When at last we separated, the clock was on the stroke of one, and I +went to a clean and quiet chamber above the little study, where a bright +fire was burning, but whence the smell of lavender, which always +accompanies the fresh sheets of Quakerhood, still prevailed with a +summer-like fragrance. The attentive house-maid disrobed me, and bathed +my chilled and frosted feet and swollen hands in water tempered with +alcohol. Then arraying me in a mob-cap and snowy cotton gown, the +property of good Mrs. Jessup, placed me in the soft nest prepared for +sojourners beneath that homely but hospitable roof. + +"I hope thee is comfortable, Miriam Monfort," said Mrs. Jessup, after I +was ensconced in bed, "Why, thy face is the same after all, that I +remember when thou wert a very little girl, and used to walk out with +Mrs. Austin. She is well, I hope?" settling the bed-cover. + +"I cannot tell you, Mrs. Jessup. I must rather ask such questions of +you. When did you see her last? and Mabel--do you know my little +sister?" + +"Oh, yes, I know her perfectly well by sight. Let me see, it was Sabbath +before last that, just as I was coming out of Friends' meeting-house, I +saw Mabel Monfort, a pretty maiden, truly, walking with her step-sister, +I think, and a tall and stately gentleman. But Mrs. Austin I have not +seen since last rose-time, and then only in passing. She seemed well, +but wore a troubled face." + +"Yes, yes; she was troubled, no doubt, things were so altered; and, if +her heart had not turned to stone, she must have thought of me sometimes +regretfully. But all bids fair now, Mrs. Jessup, both for me and her, +and for Mabel. For the rest, let them go--they are fiends!" + +"Thee has a very flushed and hot cheek, Miriam, now that I see thee +closely and touch thy face"--doing so lightly with the back of her hand +as she spoke. "A bowl of sage-tea would, no doubt, be of service to +thee; shall I--" + +"Oh, no, Mrs. Jessup; I never could drink that wise stuff in the world. +I have just had a good supper, and am excited, that is all. Jenny will +tell you what she overheard concerning my escape of to-night, and that +will account for all." + +"Good-night, then, Miriam; may the Lord have thee in his care this +night"--and she withdrew, followed by Jenny, eager, no doubt, to +commence the recital of my adventure, or to hear what more Captain +Wentworth and Dr. Pemberton had to say on the subject. + +It was nearly daylight when they parted, one to snatch a few hours of +needful slumber before setting out on his professional tour, the other +to go at once to the officers of justice, and, at the very earliest hour +possible, obtain the authority to arrest the brace of arch-conspirators, +still protected by the shadows of the dawn. + +For Justice has its time of sleeping and waking in large cities, and +will not be denied its meals, its hours of rest, and even recreation. So +it was seven o'clock in the cold November morning before the proper +ceremonials could be accomplished which placed it in the power of +Wentworth to arraign Basil Bainrothe and Luke Gregory. + +He occupied one seat in the hackney-coach, which was otherwise filled by +the officers of the law; but, when he rang a sonorous peal on the portal +bell of Bainrothe's residence, it was unanswered, and, though the house +had been watched since daylight by an armed police force, who had no +connection with McDermot, it was found, when an entrance had been +effected, that the only inhabitants of the mansion were a sick woman, an +old negress, and a child, apparently, from its puny size, about a +twelvemonth old. The woman could not be aroused from the coma in which +she seemed to have fallen, either as a crisis of her disease or a +precursor of death (medical opinion was divided), until suddenly, about +noon, she waked, perfectly clear in mind and comfortable in body, and +called loudly for nourishment! + +I had slept profoundly until that hour, and my first thought in waking +was of Mrs. Clayton and her probable condition; then came the +concentrated effort necessary for her release; and she, too, awoke, as I +have shown, to consciousness and physical ease. + +Her surprise, her indignation, at being thus deserted, surpassed even +her disappointment at my escape, and her involuntary somnolency was a +theme of self-reproach and marvel both. But all yielded in turn to +terror when she found herself under arrest in her own chamber, in +company with her fellow-conspirator Sabra. + +The child was brought to me, at my earnest request, and, during the few +days of my sojourn under Dr. Pemberton's roof, managed to make friends +of all around him. His deformity soon became a matter of interest and +medical examination, and it was decided that it was not beyond the reach +of surgical skill. + +The process would be very gradual, Dr. Pemberton thought, of +straightening the spinal curvature; but, should the health of the child +prove good after his tardy and difficult dentition, much might be hoped +from the aid of Nature herself. This was joyous intelligence to me. + +The noble soul of Ernie should still wear a fitting frame, and the +stature of his kind be accorded to him! The "picaninny" wicked old Sabra +had gloated on as a dainty morsel, on the raft, might live to put Fate +itself to shame; for had I not marveled that his mother even should care +to preserve a thing so frail and wretched, when we sat hand-in-hand +together on the burning ship? And, later, had I not pondered over the +wisdom of his preservation? Who, then, shall penetrate the mysteries of +divine intention? + +Claude Bainrothe had been arrested, but, after close and thorough +examination, was dismissed as irresponsible for and ignorant of his +father's acts and designs, a sentence afterward revoked, as far as +public opinion was concerned. + +Evelyn, Mabel, and Mrs. Austin, were, of course, beyond suspicion--the +last two deservedly so; and if, indeed, Evelyn had been guilty of +cooeperation, I knew it had been through the force of circumstances +alone, too potent for her egotism and vanity. She never wished to +destroy, only to govern me, and make my being and interests subordinate +to her own. Mrs. Austin and Mabel received me with earnest joy, and +Evelyn even manifested a decent sense of sisterly gratulation. + +I never saw Claude Bainrothe nor entered my father's house until after +he had left it and forever--accompanied not by his wife, who lingered +behind in distress and wretched dependence, most bitter to a spirit like +hers, neither loving to give or receive favors--for, gathering up all of +his own and his father's valuables, and drawing from the bank every +dollar he could command, this worthy son of an unprincipled sire fled to +join his parent, with his minion, Ada Greene. Evelyn had been for some +time sensible of his infatuation, and striven vainly to combat it by +every means in her power, forbearance having been her first alternative, +vivid reproach her last. But experiments had failed. The first only +fostered guilt beneath her own roof--the last urged it to its +consummation. + +Still young and beautiful, she was deserted by the only man she had ever +loved--the being for whom she had ruthlessly sacrificed the welfare of +her sisters and every sentiment of honor; to whom she had given up her +liberty to pander to his and his father's ignominy, and her home to +their desecration. + +In her great grief she retired to the solitude of her own chamber, and +refused to see any face save that of Mrs. Austin, who from this period +became her sole attendant, even after time had somewhat ameliorated the +first agony incident to her condition. + +For there came to her another phase of being which made this attendance +no less a necessity than her present form of bitter and helpless grief. +Hope revived, but in a form that promised no fruition, and which later +will be made plainer to the reader. Just now I must continue my +_resume_. + +Old Martin was dead of paralysis, after praying vainly to be spared to +see his master's child return and take possession of her own, for he had +never believed in my suicide, an idea that Bainrothe had taken pains to +propagate. Nor did he lend any faith to my demise; knowing what he did, +he believed that I had gone to England to get assistance from my +mother's relatives--and Mrs. Austin had shared his opinion; she had +nursed him to the last, faithfully, and Evelyn had been tolerant of his +presence. This, at least, was a consolation. + +Sabra and Mrs. Clayton were not prosecuted, and I did, perhaps, the most +inexorable act of my life when I refused to see either of them again, or +assist them to more than a mere subsistence until health could be +restored to the one and her "owners" written to in order that the other +might be reclaimed to bondage, in which condition alone she, and such as +she, can be restrained from wrongdoing. "For there are devils on the +earth," says Swedenborg, "as well as angels, and they both wear human +guise--but by this may we know them, that no mortal ties bind them, no +sphere confines them. They walk abroad, the one solely to evil for its +own sake, the other to universal good for the Father. Such as these die +not, but are translated, the one to hell, the other to heaven." + +Do we not right, then, to confine and enslave devils while they abide +with us, or, if we can, to destroy them utterly? And if we discern them, +shall we not adore God's angels? + +These dwell not long among us, and their eyes are fixed always with a +far, pure yearning for some sphere in which we have no part. We feel +this in our daily intercourse with them, for angels like these dwell +often in the lowliest form about us, and our common contact with them +thrills and awes us, though we scarcely realize that it is from them we +have these sensations, or what renders them so far, though near at hand! + +Little children, submissive slaves, sad women, unresisting men, patient +physicians, great patriots, persistent preachers, martyr poets--all +these forms and phases in turn do our associate angels enter into and +inform. + +But ever the sign is there! They are not ours! Among us, but not of +us--set apart, here for a season be it, longer or shorter, ready at any +time to spread their wings! My sister was of these--I did not recognize +this truth in the time of my great sorrow, when the parting plumes had +not revealed themselves to my undiscerning eyes. + +A mighty touchstone has been applied to these earthly orbs since then, +and the power to discriminate has been given to my soul. As Gregory and +Sabra were devils, I verily believe, so was Mabel one of Swedenborg's +angels. Who shall gainsay me? Who knows more than I on this subtle +subject? Not the wisest theologian that lives and breathes this earthly +air! Only those who never speak to enlighten us, and who have passed +into infinite light and knowledge through the portals of the grave. + +When I knelt beside Wardour Wentworth in the old church of chimes a +fortnight after my emancipation from the thraldom of demons, I acquired +with this new allegiance of mine a more Christian and forbearing spirit +than had ever before possessed me; but the pearl of great price came not +yet. Into the deeps of sorrow was my soul first compelled to enter, a +diver in the great ocean, whence alone all such precious pearls are +borne. + +Notice had been given to Claude Bainrothe to evacuate my father's +premises before my return from the brief wedding-trip which comprised +business as well as recreation. Captain Wentworth took me with him to +Richmond and to Washington, to both of which places his affairs led him. +In the last I had the pleasure of grasping Old Hickory by his honest +hand. He was my husband's patron and benefactor, and as such alone +entitled to my regard; but there was more. As patriot, soldier, +gentleman in the truest sense of the word, I have not seen his peer. + +It was a great delight to me, in spite of the shadow Evelyn's grief +threw over our threshold, to stand once more as mistress in my father's +house, even in the wreck of fortune, and control the education and +destiny of my young sister. Little Ernie, too, had his place in the +household as son by adoption, and grew daily stronger and more vigorous +in our sight, the thoughtful, loving, and reticent child, heralding the +man of power, affection, and principle, that he has become. + +The employment of my husband lay near the city of my nativity. He was +occupied in making the great railroad through Jersey that was the +pioneer of engineering progress, and a mighty link between two kindred +States. He was in this way, though often absent, never for any length of +time, and his return was always a fresh source of joy to his household. +Mabel worshiped him; Ernie silently revered; Evelyn with all of her +growing peculiarities acknowledged he had merit; and Mrs. Austin +regarded him with mingled awe and affection, for to her he was +singularly kind and affectionate. + +"To grow old in servitude," he would say, "what sadder fate can befall +any being, or more entitle him or her to forbearance and respect? What +life-long hardships does this condition not impose? And this is a field +for universal charity, which costs not much, only a little patience and +a few kind words and smiles." + +Ours was a happy household; no cloud rested upon it, save for a few +brief days of illness or discomfort, until the great blow fell. In her +seventeenth year and on the eve of her marriage with Norman Stansbury +(again our neighbor, at intervals, when he came to visit his relatives, +a man of noble qualities and singularly devoted to my sister), Mabel +died suddenly of some secret disease of the heart which had simulated +radiant health and bloom. + +I had sometimes observed with anxiety a slight shortness of breath, a +gasping after unusual exercise, and called the attention of physicians +to this state of things in my sister, who regarded it merely as a +nervous symptom, and this was all to indicate that the fell destroyer +was silently at work. She had just laid a bunch of white roses on her +toilet, and crossed the chamber for water to place them in, when she +called my name in a strange, excited way, that brought me speedily to +her side from the adjoining room. She was lying white and speechless on +her bed, beside which the crystal goblet lay in fragments. + +The waters of her own existence had flowed forth with those prepared for +her flowers, and before assistance could be summoned she expired +peacefully in my arms, without a struggle. She had inherited her +mother's malady. + +The anguish and disappointment of the lover, and my own despair, may be +better imagined than portrayed. My baby died a few weeks later--partly, +I think, from the effect of my own condition on her frail organization, +and the hope of years was blighted in this fragile blossom--the first +that had blessed our union. + +The little Constance slumbered by Mabel's side, and a slip from that +bunch of white roses, the last my sister had gathered, shadows the +marbles that guard both of those now-distant, yet not neglected graves. +Thus death at last entered our happy household! + +A great shadow fell over me, which I vainly strove to dispel with all +the effort of my reason and my will. Physicians, remembering my mother's +inscrutable melancholy--a part of that mysterious malady that consumed +her life--whispered their warnings in my husband's ears, and he +resolved, with that energy which belongs to men of his nature, to lay +the axe at once to the root of this evil in the only way that presented +itself to his mind--as possible of accomplishment. + +At first I resisted faintly the coincidence of his will, which he knew +was sure to come sooner or later; and to the very last it was agony +unspeakable to me, to think that my father's house should pass into the +hands of strangers, and that the place that knew me should know me no +more! + +Very resolutely and calmly did Wardour endure and stem my opposition. +Swift and strong as the current of my will flowed naturally, he was ever +its master, as the stone dam can stay and lull the fiercest rivers. He +persisted, knowing well what was at stake, and to my surprise Dr. +Pemberton and Mr. Gerald Stansbury cooperated with his decision. Nor did +Mr. Lodore oppose it, though losing thereby one of his most liberal +parishioners. + +A great struggle was going on in my heart just then--that I think would +have perished in darkness, had I not found myself free and emancipated +from all fetters of custom and observance by our change of residence. + +From the shallow streams of conventional Christianity, moving with tardy +current, and full of shoals and sandbanks, I was drifting down, slowly +but surely, with that great ocean of deep and unsounded religion, to +which all profound natures, that have suffered, do, I believe--if left +to themselves--inevitably tend. + +In this new land of promise--the golden California--lying like a bride +by the side of her bridegroom--the great Pacific Ocean--and shut away by +deserts and mountains, from all old conventional cliques and prejudices +of our Eastern cities, my soul took wing. What poetry was in me found +its outlet; what religious capacity God had endued me with, went forth +from the clash of cymbals and the sound of the sackbut, that ever had +reminded me, in all seasons of sorrow, or even of joyous excitement, +that I was one of an ancient people, astray in foreign pastures--went +forth (even as the compromise was made at first by Christ and his +apostles with the magnificent but soulless worship of the Jews) to merge +these sounds of ancient rite and form in the deep roll of the organ, +that fills the churches where the Host is present. + +I needed this abiding miracle to stay my faith--to give it a new +rapture, never experienced before--to sustain me in my sorrow. In the +presence of the holy Eucharist--in the sweet belief that saints communed +with me, and that the Mother of God, who, like me, had wept and +suffered, interceded for me at the throne of Christ, I regained the +vitality that seemed gone forever. + +There is no cup like this for the lips of the parched and weary +wayfarer--none! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +Let me go back a little in this retrospect, into which I am compelling +into a small space much that would take time in the telling, as a +necessary retrenchment for too much affluence of description in the +beginning. + +The mind of the narrator, like the stone descending the shaft, gathers +accelerated velocity with its momentum toward the last, and so expends +itself in a more brief and sententious manner than in the commencement. +It should be also, but rarely is, more powerful, and more condensed as +it nears its _finale_. + +Why these things do _not_ go more uniformly together, as according to +popular opinion they invariably must, is better understood by the artist +than his readers. + +Details are requisite to fill up a mental picture, and impress it on the +memory, and, though brevity is certainly the soul of wit, it cannot be +said to be infallible in enforcing description to do its duty--that of +painting a panoramic picture on the brain. + +Life is full of pre-Raphaelitism, and so is fiction, if indeed it +resembles life--such as we know it, or such as it might be. The art of +verisimilitude is found alone in detail. + +Let me go back, then, for a brief summary of some of the principal +events and personages of Monfort Hall and Beauseincourt, the earlier +portions of this retrospect. I will begin with the La Vignes. + +George Gaston, in one of the brief pauses of his stormy political +career, wooed and married Margaret La Vigne, the year before her mother +espoused in second nuptials her early lover (the brother of that saintly +minister who came to her rescue in the first days of her widowhood), and +in this marriage she has been happy and prosperous. + +They continue to reside under the same roof, and Bellevue awaits its +master. It will be empty, I think, if I understand George Gaston's +character, so long as Major Favraud is a wanderer on the face of the +Continent of Europe, and held, for his especial benefit and return, in +readiness. + +Vernon and his sweet wife Marion spent the first season of their happy +married life under my lintel-tree, and are now our nearest neighbors in +our new land of sojourn. A slender iron fence divides our grounds from +theirs. A golden cord of affection binds our lives together. Our +interests, too, are the same. + +Vernon is leagued with my husband in the great engineering projects +which have enriched them both--the capital to enlist in which sphere of +enterprise was furnished by the sale to a company of our "gold-gashed" +lands in Georgia--revealed to my knowledge, as it may be remembered, by +the inadvertence of Gregory. + +The career of Bertie La Vigne had been a varied one, as might have been +foreseen perhaps from her early manifestations and proclivities. + +She came to me, while still we dwelt in the city of my birth, when she +was approaching her seventeenth year, and remained a twelvemonth under +my roof, engaged in the study of Shakespeare with that accomplished +_artiste_ Mr. Mortimer. She intended to pursue what gift she had of +voice and histrionic talent as a means of livelihood, she told me from +the first, and to get rid of the ineffable weariness and monotony of her +life at Beauseincourt as well. + +The two motives seemed to me to be worthy of all praise. There are, +indeed, abodes that kill the soul as well as the body, and this was one +of them in my estimation, yet I remembered as a seeming inconsistency +that, when, in her fourteenth year, it was proposed that Bertie should +come to me for the purpose of attending schools for the accomplishments, +she steadily refused to do so. + +Her sense of duty might have been at the root of this firm and +persistent refusal to accept from my hand a gift richer far than "jewels +of the mine"--the power of varied occupation--but something had secretly +whispered to me that this was not all on which her apparent +self-abnegation was baaed, and I think that I was right in my +conjecture. + +Have you seen a plant, scathed by frost, that has made a strong and +successful effort to live, and still in its struggling existence bears +the mark of the early blight on leaf and blossom? + +Such was the impression made on my mind by Bertie La Vigne after three +years of separation, and yet she had grown into majestic stature and +into comparative beauty since we parted at Beauseincourt. + +Tall, slender, straight as a young palm-tree, with exquisite +extremities, and a face of aristocratic if not Grecian proportions, +there still was wanting in her step, her eye, her smile, that wonderful +_abandon_ that had formed her chief charm in her earlier years. + +She had been crystallized, so to speak, by some strange process of +suffering, into a cold and dull propriety, never infringed on save at +times when she found herself alone with me, and when the old +frolic-spirit would for a little time possess her. It was not dead, but +sleeping. + +"And what, my dear Bertie," I said, one day, when Mr. Mortimer had +departed, and she came to throw herself down on the sofa in my chamber +and _rest_, "what has reconciled you to the old Parrot, as you used to +call our sublime Shakespeare?" + +"Sublime! I shall think you affected, Miriam, if you apply that word +again to that old commonplace. If he were sublime, do you suppose all +the world would read him or go to see his plays? Do reserve that epithet +for Milton, Dante, Tasso, Schiller, and the like inaccessibilities. Yes, +I do revere 'Wallenstein' more than any thing Shakespeare ever +spouted"--in answer to my gently-shaking head--"I should break down over +_Thekla_, I should, indeed." + +"Do you think his bed was soft under the war-horses?"--and she waved her +hand--"O God! what a tragedy; what a love!" and she covered her face +with her quivering palm. + +"Bertie, you are still too excitable, I am sorry to see it" + +"Philosopher, cure thyself." + +"Yes, I know that was always a fault of mine." + +"That is why you married the man in the iron mask, you know. I could +never have loved that person." + +"Describe the man you think you could have loved, Bertie La Vigne." + +"Could have loved? That time is past forever, child. 'Frozen, and dead +forever,' as Shelley says. _He_ was my affinity, I believe, only he died +before I was born. What a pity! I would rather be his widow than the +wife of any man living." + +"_She_ would like to hear that, no doubt, Bertie." + +"Well, she may hear it if she chooses when I go to England to read the +old Parrot in the right way, under their very noses, Kembles and all. +I'll let Mrs. Shelley know I'm there," and she laughed merrily. + +"And what is your idea of the way to read Shakespeare, Bertie dear?" I +asked, playfully. + +"As one having authority, a head and shoulders above him and all his +prating, just as you would talk to your every-day next neighbor, read +him without any fear of his old deer-stealing ghost? Why, Miriam, he +knew himself better than we knew him. He had no more idea of being a +genius than you have! He was a sort of artesian well of a man, and could +not help spouting platitudes, that was all. Besides, he had eyes to see +and ears to hear, and a very Yankee spirit of investigation. It is the +fashion to crack him up like the Bible, both encyclopaedias, that's all! +Every man can see himself in these books, and every man likes a +looking-glass, and that's the whole secret of their success." + +"Bertie, you are incorrigible." + +"No, I am not; only genuine. I do think there is a good deal in both of +the works in question, but their sublimity I dispute. They are homely, +coarse, commonplace, as birth and death." + +There was something that almost froze my blood in the way she said those +last words, lying back upon the sofa with far-off-looking eyes and hands +clasped beneath her head. + +"Miriam," she said, after a while, "life is a humbug. I have thought so +for some time." + +"Poor child, poor child!" + +"Ay, poorer than the poorest, Miriam Harz," and, laying aside my work, I +went to and knelt beside her, and kissed her brow. + +"I have no soul to open! I am as empty as a chrysalis-case, that the +butterfly has gone out of to dwell amid sunshine and flowers. Yet I +believe I had one once"--in ineffably mournful accents--"but two men +killed it; and yet, neither intended the blow! O Miriam! I understand at +last what Coleridge meant by his "life in death." There is such a +thing--and that great necromancer found it out! I am the breathing +impersonation of that loathly thing, I believe. Listen"--and she sat up +with one raised finger and gave the poet's words with rare expression: + + "'The nightmare--life in death was she, + That chilled men's blood with cold.' + +"Doesn't that describe me as I am, Miriam?" + +"You are, indeed, much changed, Bertie; perhaps it would be well could +you confide in me." + +"No, it would not be well! I never could keep any thing wholly to +myself, neither can I tell it wholly, even to such as you--reticent! +merciful! But this believe, I have done nothing wrong, nothing to be +ashamed of, to wear sackcloth and ashes for, and I am preparing to put +my foot on it all. Ay, from the snake's head of first discovery to the +snake's tail of the last disappointment, ranging over half a dozen +years! A long serpent, truly!" laughing. "But I mean to be galvanized +and get back my life. I am determined to be famous, rich, beautiful!" +and she nodded to me with the old sweet sparkle in her eye, the glad +smile on her lip. + +"You laugh at the last threat!--laugh on! 'He who laughs best, laughs +last!' says the old proverb. There is such a thing as training one's +features, isn't there, as well as one's setters? Miriam, I shall develop +slowly; I am still in my very downiest adolescence as to looks. You will +see me when I have filled out and ripened, and when I put on my grand +Marie Antoinette _tenu_, some day! Hair drawn back, _a la Pompadour_, +powdered with gold-dust; a touch of rouge, perhaps, on either cheek; +ruffles of rich lace at shoulders and elbows; pink brocade and emeralds, +picked out with diamonds! Mr. Mortimer's teachings in every graceful +movement! It will be all humbug, for I have no real beauty, not much +grace; but people will think me beautiful and graceful for all that, +while I wear my costumes. They are several--this is only one--all highly +becoming! I have a vision of a sea-green dress and moss-roses; of a +violet-satin robe, trimmed and twisted everywhere with flowers of yellow +jasmine; of pale-gold and tipped marabouts in my hair; also of an azure +silk with blond and pearls and a tiara on my forehead" (she laughed +archly). "You don't know my capabilities, my dear, for appearing to look +well--they are wonderful!" + +"The very prospect transfigures you, Bertie. I am glad you are so +courageous." + +"Were you courageous when you clung to your ropes on the sea-tossed +raft! No, Miriam! that was instinct--nothing more; and I, too, have very +strong intuitions of self-preservation. Heaven grant that they may be +successful! Let us pray." + +And, with moving lips and down-drawn lids, from beneath which the large +tears stole one by one, like crystal globes, this suffering spirit +communed with its God, silently. + +So best, I felt! Bertie was only a lip-deep scoffer. Her heart was open +to conviction yet, and, when the time came, I believed that the seed +sown in old days would germinate and bear good harvest. All was chaos +now! + +Shall I keep on with Bertie, now that the theme has possession of me, +and go back to the others when she is finally dismissed? I think this +will be wisest, especially as my space is small, and mood concentrative +rather than erratic. + +Let us pass over, then, five eventful years, during which the sorrows +and changes I have spoken of had taken place, and Wentworth had fixed +his home in the vicinity of San Francisco. + +I had heard of Bertie in the interval as a successful _debutante_ as a +reader of Shakespeare, and had received her sparse and sparkling letters +confirming report, truly "angel visits, few and far between." + +At last one came announcing her intention of visiting California +professionally, and sojourning beneath my roof while in San Francisco. +It was to be a stay of several weeks. + +She was accompanied and sometimes assisted by Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer, +professional readers both--the last distinguished more for grace and +beauty, even though now on the wane of life, than she ever had been for +talent, but eminently fitted, both by education and character, for a +guide and companion. + +An English maid, as perfect as an automaton in her training and +regularity, accompanied Bertie, to whom were confided all details of +dress, all keys and jewels, with entire confidence and safety. An +elaborate doll seemed the red-and-white and stupidly-staring Euphemia. +Yet was she adroit, obedient, and expert, just to move in the groove of +her requirements. + +I have spoken only of her accessories; but now for Bertie herself. + +"Is she not magnificent?" was my exclamation when alone with my husband +on the night of her arrival, after our guest, with her sparkling face +and conversation, her superb toilet and bearing, her graceful, +nymph-like walk, had retired to her chamber, attended by the mechanical +"Miss Euphemia." + +The Mortimers, with their children and servants, remained at the +principal hotel. + +"The very word for her," he replied; "only that and nothing more." + +"Wardour!" + +"Well, love!" + +"How little enthusiasm you possess about the beautiful! Now, if there +were question of a new railroad-bridge, the vocabulary would have been +exhausted." + +"What would you have me say, dear? Is not that word a very comprehensive +one? The lady above-stairs is indeed magnificent; but, Miriam, where is +Bertie?" and he laughed. + +"Ah! I understand; you find her artificial." + +"She is too fine an actress for that, Miriam; only transfigured." + +"Yes, I see what you mean" (sadly). "Bertie _is_ wholly changed. Whom +does she resemble, Wardour? What queen, bethink you, whose likeness you +have seen? Not Mary Queen of Scots--not Elizabeth--" + +"No, surely not; but she is, now that you draw my attention to it, +strikingly like Marie Antoinette." + +"She said she would be, and she has succeeded!" and I mused on the +wonderful transition. + +Four years more, and we heard of Bertie in England, as the +rarely-gifted and beautiful American reader, "Lavinia La Vigne." Out of +the _repertoire_ of her family names she had fished up this +alliteration, and "Bertie" was reserved for those behind the scenes. + +It was declared also in the public sheets, what great and distinguished +men were in her train; how wits bowed to her wit, and authors to her +criticisms! But, when she wrote to me, she said nothing of all this, +only telling of her visit to Mrs. Shelley, who had received her kindly, +and to the tomb of Shakespeare, whose painted effigy she especially +derided. "It looks indeed like a man who would cut his wife off with an +old feather-bed and a teakettle," was one of her characteristic remarks, +I remember; but there was a little postscript that told the whole story +of her life, on a separate scrap of paper meant only for my eye I +clearly saw, and committed instantly to the flames after perusal: + +"Ah, Miriam, this is all a magic lantern! The people are phantoms, the +realities are shadows, and I a wretched humbug, duller than all! Two men +have lived and breathed for me on the face of this earth--two only. One +was my much-offending and deeply-suffering father. The other--O, Miriam, +to think of him is crime; but in his life, and that alone, I live. I +send you Praed's last beautiful little song--'Tell him I love him yet.' +It will tell you every thing. An answer I have scribbled to it as if +written by a man. Keep both, and when I am dead, should you survive me, +dear, lay them if you can in my coffin, close, close to my heart!" + +Three years more, and Bertie is in Rome, independent, at last, through +her own exertions, and able to gratify her tastes. I receive thence +statues, and pictures, and cameos, all exquisite of their kind, her +princely gifts, her legacies. Then comes a long silence. She knew what +faith was mine when she last abode beneath my roof and made herself a +little impertinently merry at my expense in consequence of this new +order of things. + +Now comes a letter (a paper envelope accompanying it)--Bertie La Vigne +has entered the Catholic Church, through baptism and confirmation, so +briefly states the letter written in her own hand and of date some +months back, retained, no doubt, through forgetfullness, until reminded. +The paper, of recent issue, tells of the ceremony at St. Peter's, which +admitted to the novitiate several noble ladies, native and foreign, and +among the rest an _artist_ of merit, Miss Lavinia La Vigne, of Georgia, +United States of America. + +On the margin of the paper were a few penciled words in her own +handwriting: "I have found the reality." This was all. + +I shall never see her again unless I go to Rome, and then only through a +grating, or in the presence of others like herself, for she has taken +the black veil, and retired behind a shadow deep as that cast from the +cypress-shaded tomb. Yet, under existing circumstances, and in +consideration of her early experiences which no success nor later future +could obliterate, or render less unendurable, I believe she has chosen +the wiser part. + +Peace be with thee, Bertie, whether in earth or in heaven! + +EDITOR'S Note.--... Some years after the closing of Miriam Monfort's +Retrospect, the civil war broke out in the United Stales, and Pope Pius +IX was pleased to grant permission to several American nuns, Southern +ladies, whose vocation was religious, to visit their own States, and +lend what succor, spiritual and physical, they could to the wounded and +dying, on the battle-fields and in the Confederate camps. Among these +came the Sister Ursula, from the convent of the Cartusians, known once +as Lavinia, or Bertie La Vigne. She was particularly fearless and +efficient, and was killed by a cannon-ball at Shiloh while kneeling +beside a dying officer, ascertained to be her sister's husband, the +gallant George Gaston of the Seventh Georgia. By order of Colonel +Favraud, they were buried in one grave. He best knew wherefore this was +done. + +Our home overlooks the calm bay of Sun Francisco, standing, as it does, +on an eminence, surrounded with stately forest-trees, and dark from a +distance with evergreens which trail their majestic branches over roods +of lawn. + +These trees have ever been a passion with me. I love their aromatic +odors, reminding one of balm and frankincense, and the great Temple of +Solomon itself, built of fine cedar-wood. I admire their stately +symmetry, and the majesty of their unchanging presence, and stand well +pleased and invigorated in their shadow. + +Our house is built of stone, and faced with white marble brought from +beyond the seas. Its architectural details are composite, and yet of +dream-like beauty and perfection. + +There are statues and blooming plants in the great lower corridors and +porticos, and vast hall of entrance, oval and open to the roof, with its +marble gallery surrounding it and suspended midway, secured by its +exquisite and lace-like screen of iron balustrading. Pictures of the +great modern masters adorn the walls. + +The skylight above floods the whole house with sunshine at the touching +of a cord, which controls the venetians that in summer-time shade the +halls below; and the parlors, and saloon, and library, and dining-room, +and the quiet, spacious chambers above-stairs, are all admirably +proportioned and finished, and furnished as well, for the comfort of +those that abide in them--hosts and guests. + + * * * * * + +In one of the most private and luxurious of these apartments abode, for +some years, a pale and shadowy being, refusing all intercourse with +society, and vowed to gloom and hypochondria. It was her strange and +mournful mania to look upon all human creatures with suspicion, nay, +with loathing. + +The fairest linen, the whitest raiment, the most exquisite repast, +whether prepared by human hands, or furnished by divine Providence +itself, in the shape of tempting fruits, if touched by another, became +at once revolting and unpalatable. Thus, with servants to relieve her of +all cares, and Mrs. Austin as her devoted attendant, she preferred, by +the aid of her own small culinary contrivance, to prepare her fastidious +meals, to spread her own snowy couch, so often a bed of thorns to her, +to put on her own attire, regularly fumigated and purified by some +process she affected, as it tame from the laundry, and touched only with +gloved hands by herself, as were the books into which she occasionally +glanced for solace. + +Most of her time was spent in gazing from her window, that overlooked +the bay, and dreaming of the return of one who had long since +heartlessly deserted her, leaving her dependent on those she had +injured, and from whom she bitterly and even derisively received +shelter, tender ministry, and all possible manifestations of compassion +and interest. + +Her mind had been partially overthrown at the time of her husband's +desertion and her dead baby's birth--events that occurred almost +conjointly; and it was the wreck of Evelyn Erle we cherished until her +slow consumption, long delayed by the balmy air of California, +culminated mercifully to herself and all around her, and removed her +from this sphere of suffering. + +Whither? Alas! the impotence of that question! Are there not beings who +seem, indeed, to lack the great essential for salvation--a soul to be +saved? How far are such responsible? + +Claude Bainrothe is married again, and not to Ada Greene, who, outcast +and poor, came some years since as an adventuress to California, and +signalized herself later, in the _demi-monde_, as a leader of great +audacity, beauty, and reckless extravagance. The lady of his choice (or +heart?) was a fat baroness, about twenty years his senior, who lets +apartments, and maintains the externes of her rank in a saloon fifteen +feet square, furnished with red velveteen, and accessible by means of an +antechamber paved with tiles! + +He has grown stout, drinks beer, and smokes a meerschaum, but is still +known on the principal promenade, and in the casino of the German town +in which he resides, as "the handsome American." He is said, however, to +have spells of melancholy. + +The "Chevalier Bainrothan," and the "Lady Charlotte Fremont," his +step-daughter, for as such she passes, for some quaint or wicked reason +unrevealed to society, with their respectable and hideous house-keeper, +Madame Clayton, dwell under the same roof, and enjoy the privilege of +access to the _salon_, of the baroness, and a weekly game of _ecarte_ at +her _soirees_, usually profitable to the chevalier in a small way. + +All this did Major Favraud, in his own merry mood, communicate to us on +the occasion of his memorable visit to San Francisco, when he remained +our delighted guest during one long delicious summer season. Of Gregory, +we never heard. + +"I had hoped to hear of your marriage long before this," I said to him +one day. "Tell me why you have not wedded some fair lady before this +time. Now tell me frankly as you can." + +"Simply because you did not wait for me." + +"Nonsense! the truth. I want no _badinage_." + +"Because, then--because I never could forget Celia--never love any one +else." + +"She was one of Swedenborg's angels, Major Favraud--no real wife of +yours. She never was married"--and I shook my head--"only united to a +being of the earth with whom she had no real affinity. Choose yours +elsewhere." + +"I believe you are half right," he said, sadly. "She never seemed to +belong to me by right--only a bird I had caught and caged, that loved me +well, yet was eager to escape." + +"Such was the state of the case, I cannot doubt; a more out and out +flesh-and-blood organization would suit you better. Your life is not +half spent; the dreary time is to come. Go back to Bellevue, and get you +a kind companion, and let children climb your knees, and surround your +hearth. You would be so much happier." + +"Suggest one, then. Come, help me to a wife." + +"No, no, I can make no matches; but you know Madame de St. Aube is a +widow now. You were always congenial." + +"Yes, but"--with a shrug of his shoulders, worthy of a Frenchman--"_que +voulez vous?_ That woman has five children already, and a plantation +mortgaged to Maginnis!" + +"Maginnis again! The very name sends a chill through my bones! No, that +will never do. Some maiden lady, then--some sage person of thirty-four +or five." + +"I do not fancy such. I'll tell you what! I believe I will go back and +court Bertie on some of her play-acting rounds, and make a decent woman +of that little vagabond. Because she was disappointed once, is that a +reason? Great Heavens! this tongue of mine! Cut it out, Mrs. Wentworth, +and cast it to the seals in the bay. I came very near--" + +"Betraying what I have long suspected, Major Favraud. Who _was_ that +man?" + +"Don't ask me, my dear woman; I must not say another word, in honor. It +was a most unfortunate affair--a sheer misunderstanding. He loved her +all the time; I knew this, but you know her manner! He did not +understand her flippant way; her keen, unsparing, and bitter wit; her +devoted, passionate, proud, and breaking heart; and so there was a +coolness, and they parted; and what happened afterward nearly killed +her! So she left her home."[6] + +"I must not ask you, I feel, for you say you cannot tell me more in +honor, but I think I know. The man, of all the earth, I would have +chosen for her. Oh, hard is woman's fate!" + +To the very last I have reserved what lay nearest my heart of hearts. + +Three children have been born to us in California, and have made our +home a paradise. The two elder are sons, named severally for my father +and theirs, Reginald and Wardour. + +The last is a daughter, a second Mabel, beautiful as the first, and +strangely resembling her, though of a stronger frame and more vital +nature. She is the sunshine of the house, the idol of her father and +brothers, who _all_ are mine, as well as the fair child of seven +summers herself. + +Mrs. Austin presides, in imagination, over our nursery, but, in reality, +is only its most honored occasional visitor, her chamber being distinct, +and my own rule being absolute therein, with the aid of a docile +adjunct. + +Ernest Wentworth, our adopted son--so-called for want of any other +name--is the standard of perfection in mind and morals, for the +imitation of the rest of the band of children. + +He has gained the usual stature of young men of his age, with a slight +defect of curvature of the shoulders that does but confirm his scholarly +appearance. + +His face, with its magnificent brow, piercing dark eyes, pale +complexion, and clustering hair, is striking, if not handsome. + +He has graduated as a student of law, and, should his health permit, +will, I cannot doubt, distinguish himself as a forensic orator. + +George Gaston and Madge have promised a visit to the Vernons; but I +cannot help hoping, rather without than _for_ any good reason, that they +will not come! I love them both, yet I feel they are mismated, even if +happy. + +My husband is noted among his peers for his liberal and noble-minded use +of a princely income, and his great public spirit. He unites +agricultural pursuits with his profession, and has placed, among other +managers, my old ally, Christian Garth and his family, on the ranch he +holds nearest to San Francisco. + +Thence, at due seasons, seated on a wain loaded with the fruits of their +labor, the worthy pair come up to the city to trade, and never fail in +their tribute to our house. + +The immigrant possessed of worth and industry, however poor; the +adventurous man, who seeks by the aid of his profession alone to +establish himself in California; the artist, the man of letters, all +meet a helping hand from Wardour Wentworth, who in his charities +observes but one principle of action, one hope of recompense, both to be +found in the teachings of philanthropy: + +"As I do unto you, go you and do unto others." This is his maxim. + +Our lives have been strangely happy and successful up to this hour, so +that sometimes my emotional nature, too often in extremes, trembles +beneath its burden of prosperity, and conjures up strange phantoms of +dark possibilities, that send me, tearful and depressed, to my husband's +arms, to find strength and courage in his rare and calm philosophy and +equipoise. + +Never on his sweet serene brow have I seen a frown of discontent, or a +cloud of sourceless sorrow, such as too often come--the last especially +to mine--born of that melancholy which has its root far back in the +bosoms of my ancestors. + +Such as his life is, he accepts it manfully; and in his shadow I find +protection and grow strong. + +Reader, farewell! + + +THE END. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 6: This was previous to Bertie's visit.] + + + + +T.B. 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Containing 1007 Old Maryland + Family Receipts for Cooking, Cloth,... $1 75 + + Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book, Cloth,... 1 75 + + Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book, Cloth,... 1 75 + + Petersons' New Cook Book, Cloth,... 1 75 + + Widdifield's New Cook Book, Cloth,... 1 75 + + Mrs. Goodfellow's Cookery as it Should Be, Cloth,... 1 75 + + The National Cook Book. By a Practical Housewife, Cloth,... 1 75 + + The Young Wife's Cook Book, Cloth,... 1 75 + + Miss Leslie's New Receipts for Cooking, Cloth,... 1 75 + + Mrs. Hale's Receipts for the Million, Cloth,... 1 75 + + The Family Save-All. By author of "National Conk Book," Cloth,... 1 75 + + Francatelli's Modern Cook. With the most approved methods of + French, English, German, and Italian Cookery. With Sixty-two + Illustrations. One volume of 500 pages, bound in morocco cloth, $5.00 + + +JAMES A. MAITLAND'S WORKS. + +_Complete in seven large duodecimo volumes, bound in cloth, gilt back, +price $1.75 each; or $12.25 a set, each set is put up in a neat box_. + + The Watchman,... $1 75 + The Wanderer,... 1 75 + The Lawyer's Story,... 1 75 + Diary of an Old Doctor,... 1 75 + Sartaroe,... 1 75 + The Three Cousins,... 1 75 + The Old Patroon; or the Great Van Brock Property,... 1 75 + +Above are each in cloth, or each one is in paper cover, at $1.50 each. + + +T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE'S WORKS. + +_Complete in seven large duodecimo volumes, bound in cloth, gilt back, +price $1.75 each; or $12.25 a set, each set is put up in a neat box_. + + The Sealed Packet,... $1 75 + Garstang Grange,... 1 75 + Dream Numbers,... 1 75 + Beppo, the Conscript,... 1 75 + Leonora Cassaloni,... 1 75 + Gemma,... 1 75 + Marietta,... 1 75 + +Above are each in cloth, or each one is in paper cover, at $1.50 each. + + +FREDRIKA BREMER'S WORKS. + +_Complete in six large duodecimo volumes, bound in cloth, gilt back, +price $1.75 each; or $10.50 a set, each set is put up in a neat box_. + + Father and Daughter,... $1 75 + The Four Sisters,... 1 75 + The Neighbors,... 1 75 + The Home,... 1 75 + +Above are each in cloth, or each one it in paper cover, at $1.50 each. + +Life in the Old World. In two volumes, cloth, price, 3.50 + + * * * * * + +Above Books will be sent, postage paid, on receipt of Retail Price, by +T.B. Peterson & Brothers, Philadelphia, Pa. + + +BY AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSEHOLD OF BOUVERIE." + +MRS. C.A. WARFIELD'S NEW WORKS. + +IN 6 VOLUMES, AT $1.75 EACH; OR $10.50 A SET. + + * * * * * + +_T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, 306 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa., have +just published a complete and uniform edition of all the new and +celebrated works written by Mrs. Catharine A. Warfield, the well-known +and popular American writer. This edition is in duodecimo form, and is +printed on the finest of white paper, and is complete in six volumes, +and each volume is bound in the very best manner, in morocco cloth, with +a full gilt back, and is sold at the low price of $1.75 a volume, or +$10.50 for a full and complete set. Every Family, and every Library in +this Country, should have in it a set of this beautiful edition of the +complete works of this talented and gifted American Authoress, Mrs. +Catharine A. Warfield. The following is a list of_ + +MRS. C.A. WARFIELD'S NEW WORKS. + +MONFORT HALL. + +MIRIAM'S MEMOIRS. + +SEA AND SHORE. + +THE HOUSEHOLD OF BOUVERIE. + +A DOUBLE WEDDING; or, HOW SHE WAS WON. + +HESTER HOWARD'S TEMPTATION. + + * * * * * + +_Above Books are for sale by all Booksellers at $1.75, each, or $10.50 +for a complete set of the six volumes, or copies of either one or more +of the above books, or a complete set of them, will be sent at once to +any one, to any place, postage pre-paid, or free of freight, on +remitting their price in a letter to the Publishers,_ + +T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, + +306 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. + + +CHEAPEST BOOK HOUSE IN THE WORLD + +Is at the Publishing and Bookselling Establishment of + +T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, + +No. 306 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. + + * * * * * + +T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, Philadelphia, are the American publishers of +the popular and fast-selling books written by MRS. EMMA D.E.N. +SOUTHWORTH, MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS, MRS. CAROLINE LEE HENTZ, MISS ELIZA A. +DUPUY, MRS. C.A. WARFIELD, MRS. HENRY WOOD, Q.K.P. DOESTICKS, EMERSON +BENNETT, T.S. ARTHUR, GEORGE LIPPARD, HANS BREITMANN (CHARLES G. +LELAND), JAMES A. MAITLAND, CHARLES DICKENS, SIR WALTER SCOTT, CHARLES +LEVER, WILKIE COLLINS, MRS. C.J. NEWBY, JUSTUS LIEBIG, W.H. MAXWELL, +ALEXANDER DUMAS, GEORGE W.M. REYNOLDS, SAMUEL WARREN, HENRY COCKTON, +FREDRIKA BREMER, T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE, MADAME GEORGE SAND, EUGENE SUE, +MISS PARDOE, FRANK FAIRLEGH, W.H. AINSWORTH, FRANK FORRESTER (HENRY W. +HERBERT), MISS ELLEN PICKERING, CAPTAIN MARRYATT, MRS. GRAY, G.P.R. +JAMES, HENRY MORFORD, GUSTAVE AIMARD, and hundreds of other authors; as +well as of DOW'S PATENT SERMONS, HUMOROUS AMERICAN BOOKS, and MISS +LESLIE'S, MISS WIDDIFIELD'S, THE YOUNG WIFE'S, MRS. GOODFELLOW'S, MRS. +HALE'S, PETERSONS', THE NATIONAL, FRANCATELLI'S, THE FAMILY SAVE-ALL, +QUEEN OF THE KITCHEN, and all the best and popular Cook Books published. + +T.B. PETERSON & BROTHERS take pleasure in calling the attention of the +entire Reading Community, as well as of all their Customers, and every +Bookseller, News Agent, and Book Buyer, as well as of the entire Book +Trade everywhere, to the fact that they are now publishing a large +number of cloth and paper-covered Books, in very attractive style, +including a series of 25 cent, 50 cent, 75 cent, $1.00, $1.50, $1.75, +and $2.00 Books, in new style covers and bindings making them large +books for the money, and bringing them before the Reading Public by +liberal advertising. They are new books, and are cheap editions of the +most popular and most saleable books published, are written by the best +American and English authors and are presented in a very attractive +style, printed from legible type, on good paper, and are especially +adapted to suit all who love to read good books, as well as for all +General reading, and they will be found for sale by all Booksellers, and +at Hotel Stands, Railroad Stations and in the Cars. They are in fact the +most popular series of works of fiction ever published, retailing at 25 +cents, 50 cents, 75 cents, $1.00, $1.50, $1.75, and $2.00 each, as they +comprise the writings of the best and most popular authors in the world, +all of which will be sold by us to the trade at very low prices, and +also at retail to everybody. Send for a Catalogue of these books at +once. + +New books are issued by us every week, comprising the best and most +entertaining works published, suitable for the Parlor, Library, +Sitting-Room, Railroad or Steamboat reading, and are written by the most +popular and best writers in the world. + +Enclose a draft for five, ten, twenty, fifty, or one hundred dollars, or +more, to us in a letter, and write for what books you wish, and on +receipt of the money, or a satisfactory reference, the books will be +packed and sent to you at once, in any way you may direct, with +circulars and show-bills of the books to post up. + +We want every Bookseller, and every News Agent, everywhere, to sell our +books, and to keep an assortment of them on hand, and to send to us at +once for a copy of our New Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue, which look +over carefully, marking what books you may want, as it contains a list +of all books published by us, all or any of which will be sold by us to +everybody in the Book Trade, to Booksellers, or to News Agents, at very +low rates. 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