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diff --git a/23358-8.txt b/23358-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a1098f --- /dev/null +++ b/23358-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1487 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Rivermouth Romance, by Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +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: A Rivermouth Romance + +Author: Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23358] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A RIVERMOUTH ROMANCE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +A RIVERMOUTH ROMANCE. + +By Thomas Bailey Aldrich + +Boston And New York Houghton Mifflin Company + +Copyright, 1873, 1885, and 1901 + + + + +I. + +At five o'clock on the morning of the tenth of July, 1860, the front +door of a certain house on Anchor Street, in the ancient seaport town +of Rivermouth, might have been observed to open with great caution. This +door, as the least imaginative reader may easily conjecture, did not +open itself. It was opened by Miss Margaret Callaghan, who immediately +closed it softly behind her, paused for a few seconds with an +embarrassed air on the stone step, and then, throwing a furtive glance +up at the second-story windows, passed hastily down the street towards +the river, keeping close to the fences and garden walls on her left. + +There was a ghost-like stealthiness to Miss Margaret's movements, though +there was nothing whatever of the ghost about Miss Margaret herself. She +was a plump, short person, no longer young, with coal-black hair growing +low on the forehead, and a round face that would have been nearly +meaningless if the features had not been emphasized--italicized, so to +speak--by the small-pox. Moreover, the brilliancy of her toilet would +have rendered any ghostly hypothesis untenable. Mrs. Solomon (we refer +to the dressiest Mrs. Solomon, whichever one that was) in all her glory +was not arrayed like Miss Margaret on that eventful summer morning. She +wore a light-green, shot-silk frock, a blazing red shawl, and a yellow +crape bonnet profusely decorated with azure, orange, and magenta +artificial flowers. In her hand she carried a white parasol. The newly +risen sun, ricocheting from the bosom of the river and striking point +blank on the top-knot of Miss Margaret's gorgeousness, made her an +imposing spectacle in the quiet street of that Puritan village. But, in +spite of the bravery of her apparel, she stole guiltily along by garden +walls and fences until she reached a small, dingy frame-house near +the wharves, in the darkened doorway of which she quenched her burning +splendor, if so bold a figure is permissible. + +Three quarters of an hour passed. The sunshine moved slowly up Anchor +Street, fingered noiselessly the well-kept brass knockers on either +side, and drained the heeltaps of dew which had been left from the +revels of the fairies overnight in the cups of the morning-glories. +Not a soul was stirring yet in this part of the town, though the +Rivermouthians are such early birds that not a worm may be said to +escape them. By and by one of the brown Holland shades at one of the +upper windows of the Bilkins mansion--the house from which Miss Margaret +had emerged--was drawn up, and old Mr. Bilkins in spiral nightcap looked +out on the sunny street. Not a living creature was to be seen, save the +dissipated family cat--a very Lovelace of a cat that was not allowed a +night-key--who was sitting on the curbstone opposite, waiting for +the hall door to be opened. Three quarters of an hour, we repeat, had +passed, when Mrs. Margaret O'Rourke, _née_ Callaghan, issued from the +small, dingy house by the river, and regained the door-step of the +Bilkins mansion in the same stealthy fashion in which she had left it. + +Not to prolong a mystery that must already oppress the reader, Mr. +Bilkins's cook had, after the manner of her kind, stolen out of +the premises before the family were up, and got herself +married--surreptitiously and artfully married, as if matrimony were an +indictable offence. + +And something of an offence it was in this instance. In the first +place Margaret Callaghan had lived nearly twenty years with the Bilkins +family, and the old people--there were no children now--had rewarded +this long service by taking Margaret into their affections. It was a +piece of subtile ingratitude for her to marry without admitting the +worthy couple to her confidence. In the next place, Margaret had married +a man some eighteen years younger than herself. That was the young man's +lookout, you say. We hold it was Margaret that was to blame. What does +a young blade of twenty-two know? Not half so much as he thinks he does. +His exhaust-less ignorance at that age is a discovery which is left for +him to make in his prime. + + "Curly gold locks cover foolish brains, + Billing and cooing is all your cheer; + Sighing and singing of midnight strains, + Under Bonnybell's window panes,-- + Wait till you come to Forty Year!" + +In one sense Margaret's husband _had_ come to forty year--she was forty +to a day. + +Mrs. Margaret O'Rourke, with the baddish cat following close at her +heels, entered the Bilkins mansion, reached her chamber in the attic +without being intercepted, and there laid aside her finery. Two or three +times, while arranging her more humble attire, she paused to take a look +at the marriage certificate, which she had deposited between the leaves +of her Prayer-Book, and on each occasion held that potent document +upside down; for Margaret's literary culture was of the severest order, +and excluded the art of reading. + +The breakfast was late that morning. As Mrs. O'Rourke set the coffee-urn +in front of Mrs. Bilkins and flanked Mr. Bilkins with the broiled +mackerel and buttered toast, Mrs. O'Rourke's conscience smote her. +She afterwards declared that when she saw the two sitting there so +innocent-like, not dreaming of the _comether_ she had put upon them, +she secretly and unbeknownst let a few tears fall into the cream-pitcher. +Whether or not it was this material expression of Margaret's penitence +that spoiled the coffee does not admit of inquiry; but the coffee was +bad. In fact, the whole breakfast was a comedy of errors. + +It was a blessed relief to Margaret when the meal was ended. She retired +in a cold perspiration to the penetralia of the kitchen, and it was +remarked by both Mr. and Mrs. Bilkins that those short flights of +vocalism--apropos of the personal charms of one Kate Kearney who lived +on the banks of Killarney--which ordinarily issued from the direction of +the scullery were unheard that forenoon. + +The town clock was striking eleven, and the antiquated timepiece on the +staircase (which never spoke but it dropped pearls and crystals, like +the fairy in the story) was lisping the hour, when there came three +tremendous knocks at the street door. Mrs. Bilkins, who was dusting +the brass-mounted chronometer in the hall, stood transfixed, with +arm uplifted. The admirable old lady had for years been carrying on +a guerilla warfare with itinerant venders of furniture polish, and +pain-killer, and crockery cement, and the like. The effrontery of the +triple knock convinced her the enemy was at her gates--possibly that +dissolute creature with twenty-four sheets of note-paper and twenty-four +envelopes for fifteen cents. + +Mrs. Bilkins swept across the hall, and opened the door with a jerk. The +suddenness of the movement was apparently not anticipated by the +person outside, who, with one arm stretched feebly towards the receding +knocker, tilted gently forward, and rested both hands on the threshold +in an attitude which was probably common enough with our ancestors of +the Simian period, but could never have been considered graceful. By +an effort that testified to the excellent condition of his muscles, the +person instantly righted himself, and stood swaying unsteadily on his +toes and heels, and smiling rather vaguely on Mrs. Bilkins. + +It was a slightly-built but well-knitted young fellow, in the not +unpicturesque garb of our marine service. His woollen cap, pitched +forward at an acute angle with his nose, showed the back part of a head +thatched with short yellow hair, which had broken into innumerable +curls of painful tightness. On his ruddy cheeks a sparse sandy beard was +making a timid _début_. Add to this a weak, good-natured mouth, a pair +of devil-may-care blue eyes, and the fact that the man was very drunk, +and you have a pre-Raphaelite portrait--we may as well say it at +once--of Mr. Larry O'Rourke of Mullingar, County Westmeath, and late of +the United States sloop-of-war Santee. + +The man was a total stranger to Mrs. Bilkins; but the instant she caught +sight of the double white anchors embroidered on the lapels of his +jacket, she unhesitatingly threw back the door, which with great +presence of mind she had partly closed. + +A drunken sailor standing on the step of the Bilkins mansion was no +novelty. The street, as we have stated, led down to the wharves, and +sailors were constantly passing. The house abutted directly on the +street; the granite door-step was almost flush with the sidewalk, and +the huge old-fashioned brass knocker--seemingly a brazen hand that had +been cut off at the wrist, and nailed against the oak as a warning to +malefactors--extended itself in a kind of grim appeal to everybody. It +seemed to possess strange fascinations for all seafaring folk; and when +there was a man-of-war in port the rat-tat-tat of that knocker would +frequently startle the quiet neighborhood long after midnight. There +appeared to be an occult understanding between it and the blue-jackets. +Years ago there was a young Bilkins, one Pendexter Bilkins--a sad losel, +we fear--who ran away to try his fortunes before the mast, and fell +overboard in a gale off Hatteras. "Lost at sea," says the chubby marble +slab in the Old South Burying-Ground, "ætat 18." Perhaps that is why +no blue-jacket, sober or drunk, was ever repulsed from the door of the +Bilkins mansion. + +Of course Mrs. Bilkins had her taste in the matter, and preferred them +sober. But as this could not always be, she tempered her wind, so to +speak, to the shorn lamb. The flushed, prematurely old face that now +looked up at her moved the good lady's pity. + +"What do you want?" she asked kindly. + +"Me wife." + +"There 's no wife for you here," said Mrs. Bilkins, somewhat taken +aback. "His wife!" she thought; "it's a mother the poor boy stands in +need of." + +"Me wife," repeated Mr. O'Rourke, "for betther or for worse." + +"You had better go away," said Mrs. Bilkins, bridling up, "or it will be +the worse for you." + +"To have and to howld," continued Mr. O'Rourke, wandering +retrospectively in the mazes of the marriage service, "to have and to +howld, till death--bad luck to him!--takes one or the ither of us." + +"You 're a blasphemous creature," said Mrs. Bilkins, severely. + +"Thim 's the words his riverince spake this mornin', standin' foreninst +us," explained Mr. O'Rourke. "I stood here, see, and me jew'l stood +there, and the howly chaplain beyont." + +And Mr. O'Rourke with a wavering forefinger drew a diagram of the +interesting situation on the door-step. + +"Well," returned Mrs. Bilkins, "if you 're a married man, all I have to +say is, there's a pair of fools instead of one. You had better be off; +the person you want does n't live here." + +"Bedad, thin, but she does." + +"Lives here?" + +"Sorra a place else." + +"The man's crazy," said Mrs. Bilkins to herself. + +While she thought him simply drunk she was not in the least afraid; but +the idea that she was conversing with a madman sent a chill over her. +She reached back her hand preparatory to shutting the door, when +Mr. O'Rourke, with an agility that might have been expected from his +previous gymnastics, set one foot on the threshold and frustrated the +design. + +"I want me wife," he said sternly. + +Unfortunately, Mr. Bilkins had gone up town, and there was no one in the +house except Margaret, whose pluck was not to be depended on. The case +was urgent. With the energy of despair Mrs. Bilkins suddenly placed +the toe of her boot against Mr. O'Rourke's invading foot, and pushed it +away. The effect of this attack was to cause Mr. O'Rourke to describe a +complete circle on one leg, and then sit down heavily on the threshold. +The lady retreated to the hat-stand, and rested her hand mechanically +on the handle of a blue cotton umbrella. Mr. O'Rourke partly turned his +head and smiled upon her with conscious superiority. At this juncture a +third actor appeared on the scene, evidently a friend of Mr. O'Rourke, +for he addressed that gentleman as "a spalpeen," and told him to go +home. + +"Divil an inch," replied the spalpeen; but he got himself off the +threshold, and returned his position on the step. + +"It's only Larry, mum," said the man, touching his forelock politely; +"as dacent a lad as iver lived, when he 's not in liquor; an' I 've +known him to be sober for days to-gither," he added, reflectively. "He +don't mane a ha'p'orth o' harum, but jist now he's not quite in his +right moind." + +"I should think not," said Mrs. Bilkins, turning from the speaker to +Mr. O'Rourke, who had seated himself gravely on the scraper, and was +weeping. "Hasn't the man any friends?" + +"Too many of 'em, mum, an' it's along wid dhrinkin' toasts wid 'em that +Larry got throwed. The punch that spalpeen has dhrunk this day would +amaze ye. He give us the slip awhiles ago, bad 'cess to him, an' come +up here. Did n't I tell ye, Larry, not to be afther ringin' at the owld +gintleman's knocker? Ain't ye got no sinse at all?" + +"Misther Donnehugh," responded Mr. O'Rourke with great dignity, "ye 're +dhrunk agin." + +Mr. Donnehugh, who had not taken more than thirteen ladles of rum-punch, +disdained to reply directly. + +"He's a dacent lad enough"--this to Mrs. Bilkins--"but his head is wake. +Whin he's had two sups o' whiskey he belaves he's dhrunk a bar'l full. +A gill o' wather out of a jimmy-john 'd fuddle him, mum." + +"Is n't there anybody to look after him?" + +"No, mum, he's an orphan; his father and mother live in the owld +counthry, an' a fine hale owld couple they are." + +"Has n't he any family in the town"-- + +"Sure, mum, he has a family; was n't he married this blessed mornin'?" + +"He said so." + +"Indade, thin, he was--the pore divil!" + +"And the--the person?" inquired Mrs. Bilkins. + +"Is it the wife, ye mane?" + +"Yes, the wife: where is she?" + +"Well, thin, mum," said Mr. Donnehugh, "it's yerself can answer that." + +"I?" exclaimed Mrs. Bilkins. "Good heavens! this man's as crazy as the +other!" + +"Begorra, if anybody's crazy, it's Larry, for it's Larry has married +Margaret." + +"What Margaret?" cried Mrs. Bilkins, with a start. + +"Margaret Callaghan, sure." + +"_Our_ Margaret? Do you mean to say that OUR Margaret has married +that--that good-for-nothing, inebriated wretch!" + +"It's a civil tongue the owld lady has, any way," remarked Mr. O'Rourke, +critically, from the scraper. + +Mrs. Bilkins's voice during the latter part of the colloquy had been +pitched in a high key; it rung through the hall and penetrated to the +kitchen, where Margaret was thoughtfully wiping the breakfast things. +She paused with a half-dried saucer in her hand, and listened. In a +moment more she stood, with bloodless face and limp figure, leaning +against the banister, behind Mrs. Bilkins. + +"Is it there ye are, me jew'l!" cried Mr. O'Rourke, discovering her. + +Mrs. Bilkins wheeled upon Margaret. + +"Margaret Callaghan, _is_ that thing your husband?" + +"Ye-yes, mum," faltered Mrs. O'Rourke, with a woful lack of spirit. + +"Then take it away!" cried Mrs. Bilkins. + +Margaret, with a slight flush on either cheek, glided past Mrs. Bilkins, +and the heavy oak door closed with a bang, as the gates of Paradise must +have closed of old upon Adam and Eve. + +"Come!" said Margaret, taking Mr. O'Rourke by the hand; and the two +wandered forth upon their wedding journey down Anchor Street, with all +the world before them where to choose. They chose to halt at the small, +shabby tenement-house by the river, through the doorway of which +the bridal pair disappeared with a reeling, eccentric gait; for +Mr. O'Rourke's intoxication seemed to have run down his elbow, and +communicated itself to Margaret. O Hymen! who burnest precious gums and +scented woods in thy torch at the melting of aristocratic hearts, with +what a pitiful penny-dip thou hast lighted up our little back-street +romance! + + + + +II. + +It had been no part of Margaret's plan to acknowledge the marriage so +soon. Though on pleasure bent, she had a frugal mind. She had invested +in a husband with a view of laying him away for a rainy day--that is to +say, for such time as her master and mistress should cease to need her +services; for she had promised on more than one occasion to remain with +the old people as long as they lived. Indeed, if Mr. O'Rourke had come +to her and said in so many words, "The day you marry me you must leave +the Bilkins family," there is very little doubt but Margaret would +have let that young sea-monster slip back unmated, so far as she was +concerned, into his native element. The contingency never entered into +her calculations. She intended that the ship which had brought Ulysses +to her island should take him off again after a decent interval of +honeymoon; then she would confess all to Mrs. Bilkins, and be forgiven, +and Mr. Bilkins would not cancel that clause supposed to exist in his +will bequeathing two first-mortgage bonds of the Squedunk E. B. Co. to a +certain faithful servant. In the mean while she would add each month to +her store in the coffers of the Rivermouth Savings Bank; for Calypso had +a neat sum to her credit on the books of that provident institution. + +But this could not be now. The volatile bridegroom had upset the +wisely conceived plan, and "all the fat was in the fire," as Margaret +philosophically put it. Mr. O'Rourke had been fully instructed in the +part he was to play, and, to do him justice, had honestly intended to +play it; but destiny was against him. It may be observed that destiny +and Mr. O'Rourke were not on very friendly terms. + +After the ceremony had been performed and Margaret had stolen back to +the Bilkins mansion, as related, Mr. O'Rourke with his own skilful hands +had brewed a noble punch for the wedding guests. Standing at the head of +the table and stirring the pungent mixture in a small wash-tub purchased +for the occasion, Mr. O'Rourke came out in full flower. His flow of +wit, as he replenished the glasses, was as racy and seemingly as +inexhaustible as the punch itself. When Mrs. McLaughlin held out her +glass, inadvertently upside down, for her sixth ladleful, Mr. O'Rourke +gallantly declared it should be filled if he had to stand on his head +to do it. The elder Miss O'Leary whispered to Mrs. Connally that Mr. +O'Rourke was "a perfic gintleman," and the men in a body pronounced +him a bit of the raal shamrock. If Mr. O'Rourke was happy in brewing a +punch, he was happier in dispensing it, and happiest of all in drinking +a great deal of it himself. He toasted Mrs. Finnigan, the landlady, and +the late lamented Finnigan, the father, whom he had never seen, and Miss +Biddy Finnigan, the daughter, and a young toddling Finnigan, who was at +large in shockingly scant raiment. He drank to the company individually +and collectively, drank to the absent, drank to a tin-peddler who +chanced to pass the window, and indeed was in that propitiatory mood +when he would have drunk to the health of each separate animal that came +out of the Ark. It was in the midst of the confusion and applause which +followed his song, "The Wearing of the Grane," that Mr. O'Rourke, the +punch being all gone, withdrew unobserved, and went in quest of Mrs. +O'Rourke--with what success the reader knows. + +***** + +According to the love-idyl of the period, when Laura and Charles +Henry, after unheard-of obstacles, are finally united, all cares and +tribulations and responsibilities slip from their sleek backs like +Christian's burden. The idea is a pretty one, theoretically, but, like +some of those models in the Patent Office at Washington, it fails to +work. Charles Henry does not go on sitting at Laura's feet and reading +Tennyson to her forever: the rent of the cottage by the sea falls due +with prosaic regularity; there are bakers, and butchers, and babies, and +tax-collectors, and doctors, and undertakers, and sometimes gentlemen +of the jury, to be attended to. Wedded life is not one long amatory poem +with recurrent rhymes of love and dove, and kiss and bliss. Yet when +the average sentimental novelist has supplied his hero and heroine with +their bridal outfit and arranged that little matter of the marriage +certificate, he usually turns off the gas, puts up his shutters, and +saunters off with his hands in his pockets, as if the day's business +were over. But we, who are honest dealers in real life and disdain to +give short weight, know better. The business is by no means over; it is +just begun. It is not Christian throwing off his pack for good and all, +but Christian taking up a load heavier and more difficult than any he +has carried. + +If Margaret Callaghan, when she meditated matrimony, indulged in any +roseate dreams, they were quickly put to flight. She suddenly found +herself dispossessed of a quiet, comfortable home, and face to face with +the fact that she had a white elephant on her hands. It is not likely +that Mr. O'Rourke assumed precisely the shape of a white elephant to her +mental vision; but he was as useless and cumbersome and unmanageable as +one. + +Margaret and Larry's wedding tour did not extend beyond Mrs. +Finnigan's establishment, where they took two or three rooms and set up +housekeeping in a humble way. Margaret, who was a tidy housewife, kept +the floor of her apartments as white as your hand, the tin plates on +the dresser as bright as your lady-love's eyes, and the cooking-stove as +neat as the machinery on a Sound steamer. When she was not rubbing the +stove with lamp-black she was cooking upon it some savory dish to tempt +the palate of her marine monster. Naturally of a hopeful temperament, +she went about her work singing softly to herself at times, and would +have been very happy that first week if Mr. O'Rourke had known a sober +moment. But Mr. O'Rourke showed an exasperating disposition to keep +up festivities. At the end of ten days, however, he toned down, and +at Margaret's suggestion that he had better be looking about for some +employment he rigged up a fishing-pole, and set out with an injured air +for the wharf at the foot of the street, where he fished for the rest of +the day. To sit for hours blinking in the sun, waiting for a cunner to +come along and take his hook, was as exhaustive a kind of labor as he +cared to engage in. Though Mr. O'Rourke had recently returned from a +long cruise, he had not a cent to show. During his first three days +ashore he had dissipated his three years' pay. The housekeeping expenses +began eating a hole in Margaret's little fund, the existence of which +was no sooner known to Mr. O'Rourke than he stood up his fishing-rod in +one corner of the room, and thenceforth it caught nothing but cobwebs. + +"Divil a sthroke o' work I 'll do," said Mr. O'Rourke, "whin we can live +at aise on our earnin's. Who 'd be afther frettin' hisself, wid money in +the bank? How much is it, Peggy darlint?" + +And divil a stroke more of work did he do. He lounged down on the +wharves, and, with his short clay pipe stuck between his lips and his +hands in his pockets, stared off at the sail-boats on the river. He sat +on the door-step of the Finnigan domicile, and plentifully chaffed the +passers-by. Now and then, when he could wheedle some fractional currency +out of Margaret, he spent it like a crown-prince at The Wee Drop around +the corner. With that fine magnetism which draws together birds of a +feather, he shortly drew about him all the ne'er-do-weels of Rivermouth. + +It was really wonderful what an unsuspected lot of them there was. From +all the frowzy purlieus of the town they crept forth into the sunlight +to array themselves under the banner of the prince of scallawags. It was +edifying of a summer afternoon to see a dozen of them sitting in a row, +like turtles, on the string-piece of Jedediah Rand's wharf, with their +twenty-four feet dangling over the water, assisting Mr. O'Rourke in +contemplating the islands in the harbor, and upholding the scenery, as +it were. + +The rascal had one accomplishment, he had a heavenly voice--quite in the +rough, to be sure--and he played, on the violin like an angel. He did +not know one note from another, but he played in a sweet natural way, +just as Orpheus must have played, by ear. The drunker he was the +more pathos and humor he wrung from the old violin, his sole piece of +personal property. He had a singular fancy for getting up at two or +three o'clock in the morning, and playing by an open casement, to +the distraction of all the dogs in the immediate neighborhood and +innumerable dogs in the distance. + +Unfortunately, Mr. O'Rourke's freaks were not always of so innocent a +complexion. On one or two occasions, through an excess of animal and +other spirits, he took to breaking windows in the town. Among his +nocturnal feats he accomplished the demolition of the glass in the door +of The Wee Drop. Now, breaking windows in Rivermouth is an amusement +not wholly disconnected with an interior view of the police-station +(bridewell is the local term); so it happened that Mr. O'Rourke woke up +one fine morning and found himself snug and tight in one of the cells in +the rear of the Brick Market. His plea that the bull's-eye in the glass +door of The Wee Drop winked at him in an insult-in' manner as he was +passing by did not prevent Justice Hackett from fining the delinquent +ten dollars and costs, which made sad havoc with the poor wife's bank +account. So Margaret's married life wore on, and all went merry as a +funeral knell. + +After Mrs. Bilkins, with a brow as severe as that of one of the Parcæ, +had closed the door upon the O'Rourkes that summer morning, she sat down +on the stairs, and, sinking the indignant goddess in the woman, burst +into tears. She was still very wroth with Margaret Callaghan, as she +persisted in calling her; very merciless and unforgiving, as the gentler +sex are apt to be--to the gentler sex. Mr. Bilkins, however, after the +first vexation, missed Margaret from the household; missed her singing, +which was in itself as helpful as a second girl; missed her hand in +the preparation of those hundred and one nameless comforts which are +necessities to the old, and wished in his soul that he had her back +again. Who could make a gruel, when he was ill, or cook a steak, when +he was well, like Margaret? So, meeting her one morning at the +fish-market--for Mr. O'Rourke had long since given over the onerous +labor of catching dinners--he spoke to her kindly, and asked her how she +liked the change in her life, and if Mr. O'Rourke was good to her. + +"Troth, thin, sur," said Margaret, with a short, dry laugh, "he 's the +divil's own!" + +Margaret was thin and careworn, and her laugh had the mild gayety of +champagne not properly corked. These things were apparent even to Mr. +Bilkins, who was not a shrewd observer. + +"I 'm afraid, Margaret," he remarked sorrowfully, "that you are not +making both ends meet." + +"Begorra, I 'd be glad if I could make one ind meet!" returned Margaret. + +With a duplicity quite foreign to his nature, Mr. Bilkins gradually drew +from her the true state of affairs. Mr. O'Rourke was a very bad case +indeed; he did nothing towards her support; he was almost constantly +drunk; the little money she had laid by was melting away, and would +not last until winter. Mr. O'Rourke was perpetually coming home with a +sprained ankle, or a bruised shoulder, or a broken head. He had broken +most of the furniture in his festive hours, including the cooking-stove. +"In short," as Mr. Bilkins said in relating the matter afterwards to +Mrs. Bilkins, "he had broken all those things which he should n't have +broken, and failed to break the one thing he ought to have broken long +ago--his neck, namely." + +The revelation which startled Mr. Bilkins most was this: in spite +of all, Margaret loved Larry with the whole of her warm Irish heart. +Further than keeping the poor creature up waiting for him until ever +so much o'clock at night, it did not appear that he treated her +with personal cruelty. If he had beaten her, perhaps she would have +worshipped him. It needed only that. + +Revolving Margaret's troubles in his thoughts as he walked homeward, Mr. +Bilkins struck upon a plan by which he could help her. When this plan +was laid before Mrs. Bilkins, she opposed it with a vehemence that +convinced him she had made up her mind to adopt it. + +"Never, never will I have that ungrateful woman under this roof!" cried +Mrs. Bilkins; and accordingly the next day Mr. and Mrs. O'Rourke took +up their abode in the Bilkins mansion--Margaret as cook, and Larry as +gardener. + +"I 'm convanient if the owld gintleman is," had been Mr. O'Rourke's +remark, when the proposition was submitted to him. Not that Mr. O'Rourke +had the faintest idea of gardening. He did n't know a tulip from a +tomato. He was one of those sanguine people who never hesitate to +undertake anything, and are never abashed by their herculean inability. + +Mr. Bilkins did not look to Margaret's husband for any great botanical +knowledge; but he was rather surprised one day when Mr. O'Rourke pointed +to the triangular bed of lilies-of-the-valley, then out of flower, and +remarked, "Thim 's a nate lot o' pur-taties ye 've got there, sur." Mr. +Bilkins, we repeat, did not expect much from Mr. O'Rourke's skill in +gardening; his purpose was to reform the fellow if possible, and in any +case to make Margaret's lot easier. + +Reestablished in her old home, Margaret broke into song again, and +Mr. O'Rourke himself promised to do very well; morally, we mean, not +agriculturally. His ignorance of the simplest laws of nature, if nature +has any simple laws, and his dense stupidity on every other subject +were heavy trials to Mr. Bilkins. Happily, Mr. Bilkins was not without +a sense of humor, else he would have found Mr. O'Rourke insupportable. +Just when the old gentleman's patience was about exhausted, the gardener +would commit some atrocity so perfectly comical that his master all but +loved him for the moment. + +"Larry," said Mr. Bilkins, one breathless afternoon in the middle of +September, "just see how the thermometer on the back porch stands." + +Mr. O'Rourke disappeared, and after a prolonged absence returned with +the monstrous announcement that the thermometer stood at 820! + +Mr. Bilkins looked at the man closely. He was unmistakably sober. + +"Eight hundred and twenty what?" cried Mr. Bilkins, feeling very warm, +as he naturally would in so high a temperature. + +"Eight hundthred an' twinty degrays, I suppose, sur." + +"Larry, you 're an idiot." + +This was obviously not to Mr. O'Rourke's taste; for he went out and +brought the thermometer, and, pointing triumphantly to the line of +numerals running parallel with the glass tube, exclaimed, "Add 'em up +yerself, thin!" + +Perhaps this would not have been amusing if Mr. Bilkins had not spent +the greater part of the previous forenoon in initiating Mr. O'Rourke +into the mysteries of the thermometer. Nothing could make amusing Mr. +O'Rourke's method of setting out crocus bulbs. Mr. Bilkins had received +a lot of a very choice variety from Boston, and having a headache that +morning, turned over to Mr. O'Rourke the duty of planting them. Though +he had never seen a bulb in his life, Larry unblushingly asserted that +he had set out thousands for Sir Lucius O'Grady of O'Grady Castle, +"an illegant place intirely, wid tin miles o' garden-walks," added +Mr. O'Rourke, crushing Mr. Bilkins, who boasted only of a few humble +flower-beds. + +The following day he stepped into the garden to see how Larry had done +his work. There stood the parched bulbs, carefully arranged in circles +and squares on top of the soil. + +"Did n't I tell you to set out these bulbs?" cried Mr. Bilkins, +wrathfully. + +"An' did n't I set 'em out?" expostulated Mr. O'Rourke. "An' ain't they +a settin' there beautiful?" + +"But you should have put them into the ground, stupid!" + +"Is it bury 'em, ye mane? Be jabbers! how could they iver git out agin? +Give the little jokers a fair show, Misther Bilkins!" + +For two weeks Mr. O'Rourke conducted himself with comparative propriety; +that is to say, be rendered himself useless about the place, appeared +regularly at his meals, and kept sober. Perhaps the hilarious strains +of music which sometimes issued at midnight from the upper window of +the north gable were not just what a quiet, unostentatious family would +desire; but on the whole there was not much to complain of. + +The third week witnessed a falling off. Though always promptly on hand +at the serving out of rations, Mr. O'Rourke did not even make a pretence +of working in the garden. He would disappear mysteriously immediately +after breakfast, and reappear with supernatural abruptness at dinner. +Nobody knew what he did with himself in the interval, until one day he +was observed to fall out of an apple-tree near the stable. His retreat +discovered, he took to the wharves and the alleys in the distant part +of the town. It soon became evident that his ways were not the ways of +temperance, and that all his paths led to The Wee Drop. + +Of course Margaret tried to keep this from the family. Being a woman, +she coined excuses for him in her heart. It was a dull life for the lad, +any way, and it was worse than him that was leading Larry astray. Hours +and hours after the old people had gone to bed, she would sit without a +light in the lonely kitchen, listening for that shuffling step along the +gravel walk. Night after night she never closed her eyes, and went about +the house the next day with that smooth, impenetrable face behind which +women hide their care. + +One morning found Margaret sitting pale and anxious by the kitchen +stove. O'Rourke had not come home at all. Noon came, and night, but +not Larry. Whenever Mrs. Bilkins approached her that day, Margaret was +humming "Kate Kearney" quite merrily. But when her work was done, she +stole out at the back gate and went in search of him. She scoured the +neighborhood like a madwoman. O'Rourke had not been at the 'Finnigans'. +He had not been at The Wee Drop since Monday, and this was Wednesday +night. Her heart sunk within her when she failed to find him in the +police-station. Some dreadful thing had happened to him. She came back +to the house with one hand pressed wearily against her cheek. The dawn +struggled through the kitchen windows, and fell upon Margaret crouched +by the stove. + +She could no longer wear her mask. When Mr. Bilkins came down she +confessed that Larry had taken to drinking again, and had not been home +for two nights. + +"Mayhap he 's drownded hisself," suggested Margaret, wringing her hands. + +"Not he," said Mr. Bilkins; "he does n't like the taste of water well +enough." + +"Troth, thin, he does n't," reflected Margaret, and the reflection +comforted her. + +"At any rate, I 'll go and look him up after breakfast," said Mr. +Bilkins. And after breakfast, accordingly, Mr. Bilkins sallied forth +with the depressing expectation of finding Mr. O'Rourke without much +difficulty. "Come to think of it," said the old gentleman to himself, +drawing on his white cotton gloves as he walked up Anchor Street +"_I_ don't want to find him." + + + + +III. + +But Mr. O'Rourke was not to be found. With amiable cynicism Mr. Bilkins +directed his steps in the first instance to the police-station, quite +confident that a bird of Mr. O'Rourke's plumage would be brought +to perch in such a cage. But not so much as a feather of him was +discoverable. The Wee Drop was not the only bacchanalian resort in +Rivermouth; there were five or six other low drinking-shops scattered +about town, and through these Mr. Bilkins went conscientiously. He then +explored various blind alleys, known haunts of the missing man, and took +a careful survey of the wharves along the river on his way home. He even +shook the apple-tree near the stable with a vague hope of bringing +down Mr. O'Rourke, but brought down nothing except a few winter +apples, which, being both unripe and unsound, were not perhaps bad +representatives of the object of his search. + +That evening a small boy stopped at the door of the Bilking mansion with +a straw hat, at once identified as Mr. O'Rourke's, which had been found +on Neal's Wharf. This would have told against another man; but O'Rourke +was always leaving his hat on a wharf. Margaret's distress is not to +be pictured. She fell back upon and clung to the idea that Larry had +drowned himself, not intentionally, may be; possibly he had fallen +overboard while intoxicated. + +The late Mr. Buckle has informed us that death by drowning is regulated +by laws as inviolable and beautiful as those of the solar system; that +a certain percentage of the earth's population is bound to drown itself +annually, whether it wants to or not. It may be presumed, then, that +Rivermouth's proper quota of dead bodies was washed ashore during the +ensuing two months. There had been gales off the coast and pleasure +parties on the river, and between them they had managed to do a ghastly +business. But Mr. O'Rourke failed to appear among the flotsam and jetsam +which the receding tides left tangled in the piles of the River-mouth +wharves. This convinced Margaret that Larry had proved a too tempting +morsel to some buccaneering shark, or had fallen a victim to one of +those immense schools of fish which seem to have a yearly appointment +with the fishermen on this coast. From that day Margaret never saw a cod +or a mackerel brought into the house without an involuntary shudder. She +averted her head in making up the fish-balls, as if she half dreaded to +detect a faint aroma of whiskey about them. And, indeed, why might not a +man fall into the sea, be eaten, say, by a halibut, and reappear on the +scene of his earthly triumphs and defeats in the noncommittal form of +hashed fish? + + "Imperial Cæsar, dead and turned to clay, + Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." + +But, perhaps, as the conservative Horatio suggests, 't were to consider +too curiously to consider so. + +Mr. Bilkins had come to adopt Margaret's explanation of O'Rourke's +disappearance. He was undoubtedly drowned; had most likely drowned +himself. The hat picked up on the wharf was strong circumstantial +evidence in that direction. But one feature of the case staggered Mr. +Bilkins. O'Rourke's violin had also disappeared. Now, it required no +great effort to imagine a man throwing himself overboard under the +influence of _mania à potu_; but it was difficult to conceive of a man +committing violinicide! If the fellow went to drown himself, why did he +take his fiddle with him? He might as well have taken an umbrella or +a German student-lamp. This question troubled Mr. Bilkins a good deal +first and last. But one thing was indisputable: the man was gone--and +had evidently gone by water. + +It was now that Margaret invested her husband with charms of mind and +person not calculated to make him recognizable by any one who had ever +had the privilege of knowing him in the faulty flesh. She eliminated all +his bad qualities, and projected from her imagination a Mr. O'Rourke as +he ought to have been--a species of seraphic being mixed up in some way +with a violin; and to this ideal she erected a costly headstone in +the suburban cemetery. "It would be a proud day for Larry," observed +Margaret contemplatively, "if he could rest his oi on the illegant +monumint I 've put up to him." If Mr. O'Rourke could have read the +inscription on it, he would never have suspected his own complicity in +the matter. + +But there the marble stood, sacred to his memory; and soon the snow came +down from the gray sky and covered it, and the invisible snow of weeks +and months drifted down on Margaret's heart, and filled up its fissures, +and smoothed off the sharp angles of its grief; and there was peace upon +it. + +Not but she sorrowed for Larry at times. Yet life had a relish to it +again; she was free, though she did not look at it in that light; she +was happier in a quiet fashion than she had ever been, though she would +not have acknowledged it to herself. She wondered that she had the heart +to laugh when the ice-man made love to her. Perhaps she was conscious of +something comically incongruous in the warmth of a gentleman who spent +all winter in cutting ice, and all summer in dealing it out to his +customers. She had not the same excuse for laughing at the baker; yet +she laughed still more merrily at him when he pressed her hand over the +steaming loaf of brown-bread, delivered every Saturday morning at the +scullery door. Both these gentlemen had known Margaret many years, yet +neither of them had valued her very highly until another man came along +and married her. A widow, it would appear, is esteemed in some sort as a +warranted article, being stamped with the maker's name. + +There was even a third lover in prospect; for according to the gossip of +the town, Mr. Donnehugh was frequently to be seen of a Sunday afternoon +standing in the cemetery and regarding Mr. O'Rourke's headstone with +unrestrained satisfaction. + +A year had passed away, and certain bits of color blossoming among +Margaret's weeds indicated that the winter of her mourning was oyer. The +ice-man and the baker were hating each other cordially, and Mrs. Bilkins +was daily expecting it would be discovered before night that Margaret +had married one or both of them. But to do Margaret justice, she was +faithful in thought and deed to the memory of O'Rourke--not the O'Rourke +who disappeared so strangely, but the O'Rourke who never existed. + +"D' ye think, mum," she said one day to Mrs. Bilkins, as that lady was +adroitly sounding her on the ice question--"d' ye think I 'd condescind +to take up wid the likes o' him, or the baker either, afther sich a man +as Larry?" + +The rectified and clarified O'Rourke was a permanent wonder to Mr. +Bilkins, who bore up under the bereavement with noticeable resignation. + +"Peggy is right," said the old gentleman, who was superintending the +burning out of the kitchen flue. "She won't find another man like Larry +O'Rourke in a hurry." + +"Thrue for ye, Mr. Bilkins," answered Margaret. "Maybe there's as good +fish in the say as iver was caught, but I don't be-lave it, all the +same." + +As good fish in the sea! The words recalled to Margaret the nature of +her loss, and she went on with her work in silence. + +***** + +"What--what is it, Ezra?" cried Mrs. Bilkins, changing color, and rising +hastily from the breakfast table. Her first thought was of apoplexy. + +There sat Mr. Bilkins, with his wig pushed back from his forehead, and +his eyes fixed vacantly on The Weekly Chronicle, which he held out at +arm's length before him. + +"Good heavens, Ezra! what _is_ the matter?" + +Mr. Bilkins turned his eyes upon her mechanically, as if he were a great +wax-doll, and somebody had pulled his wire. + +"Can't you speak, Ezra?" + +His lips opened, and moved inarticulately; then he pointed a rigid +finger, in the manner of a guide-board, at a paragraph in the paper, +which he held up for Mrs. Bilkins to read over his shoulder. When she +had read it she sunk back into her chair without a word, and the two sat +contemplating each other as if they had never met before in this world, +and were not overpleased at meeting. + +The paragraph which produced this singular effect on the aged couple +occurred at the end of a column of telegraph despatches giving the +details of an unimportant engagement that had just taken place between +one of the blockading squadron and a Confederate cruiser. The engagement +itself does not concern us, but this item from the list of casualties on +the Union side has a direct bearing on our narrative:-- + + "_Larry O'Rourke, seaman, splinter wound in the leg. + Not serious_." + +That splinter flew far. It glanced from Mr. O'Rourke's leg, went plumb +through the Bilkins mansion, and knocked over a small marble slab in the +Old South Burying Ground. + +If a ghost had dropped in familiarly to breakfast, the constraint and +consternation of the Bilkins family could not have been greater. How +was the astounding intelligence to be broken to Margaret? Her explosive +Irish nature made the task one of extreme delicacy. Mrs. Bilkins flatly +declared herself incapable of undertaking it. Mr. Bilkins, with many +misgivings as to his fitness, assumed the duty; for it would never do to +have the news sprung suddenly upon Margaret by people outside. + +As Mrs. O'Rourke was clearing away the breakfast things, Mr. Bilkins, +who had lingered near the window with the newspaper in his hand, coughed +once or twice in an unnatural way to show that he was not embarrassed, +and began to think that may be it would be best to tell Margaret after +dinner. Mrs. Bilkins fathomed his thought with that intuition which +renders women terrible, and sent across the room an eye-telegram to this +effect, "Now is your time." + +"There 's been another battle down South, Margaret," said the old +gentleman presently, folding up the paper and putting it in his pocket. +"A sea-fight this time." + +"Sure, an' they 're allus fightin' down there." + +"But not always with so little damage. There was only one man wounded on +our side." + +"Pore man! It's sorry we oughter be for his wife an' childer, if he's +got any." + +"Not badly wounded, you will understand, Margaret--not at all seriously +wounded; only a splinter in the leg." + +"Faith, thin, a splinter in the leg is no pleasant thing in itself." + +"A mere scratch," said Mr. Bilkins lightly, as if he were constantly in +the habit of going about with a splinter in his own leg, and found it +rather agreeable. "The odd part of the matter is the man's first name. +His first name was Larry." + +Margaret nodded, as one should say, There's a many Larrys in the world. + +"But the oddest part of it," continued Mr. Bilkins, in a carelessly +sepulchral voice, "is the man's last name." + +Something in the tone of his voice made Margaret look at him, and +something in the expression of his face caused the blood to fly from +Margaret's cheek. + +"The man's last name!" she repeated, wonderingly. + +"Yes, his last name--O'Rourke." + +"D'ye mane it?" shrieked Margaret--"d' ye mane it? Glory to God! O +worra! worra!" + +"Well, Ezra," said Mrs. Bilking, in one of those spasms of base +ingratitude to which even the most perfect women are liable, "you 've +made nice work of it. You might as well have knocked her down with an +axe!" + +"But, my dear"-- + +"Oh, bother!--my smelling-bottle, quick!--second bureau +drawer--left-hand side." + +Joy never kills; it is a celestial kind of hydrogen of which it seems +impossible to get too much at one inhalation. In an hour Margaret was +able to converse with comparative calmness on the resuscitation of Larry +O'Rourke, whom the firing of a cannon had brought to the surface as if +he had been in reality a drowned body. + +Now that the whole town was aware of Mr. O'Rourke's fate, his friend Mr. +Donne-hugh came forward with a statement that would have been of some +interest at an earlier period, but was of no service as matters stood, +except so far as it assisted in removing from Mr. Bilkins's mind a +passing doubt as to whether the Larry O'Rourke of the telegraphic +reports was Margaret's scape-grace of a husband. Mr. Donnehugh had known +all along that O'Rourke had absconded to Boston by a night train and +enlisted in the navy. It was the possession of this knowledge that +had made it impossible for Mr. Donnehugh to look at Mr. O'Rourke's +gravestone without grinning. + +At Margaret's request, and in Margaret's name, Mr. Bilkins wrote three +or four letters to O'Rourke, and finally succeeded in extorting an +epistle from that gentleman, in which he told Margaret to cheer up, that +his fortune was as good as made, and that the day would come when she +should ride through the town in her own coach, and no thanks to old +flint-head, who pretended to be so fond of her. Mr. Bilkins tried to +conjecture who was meant by old flint-head, but was obliged to give it +up. Mr. O'Rourke furthermore informed Margaret that he had three hundred +dollars prize-money coming to him, and broadly intimated that when he +got home he intended to have one of the most extensive blow-outs ever +witnessed in Rivermouth. + +"Och!" laughed Margaret, "that's jist Larry over agin. The pore lad was +allus full of his nonsense an' spirits." + +"That he was," said Mr. Bilkins, dryly. + +Content with the fact that her husband was in the land of the living, +Margaret gave herself no trouble over the separation. O'Rourke had +shipped for three years; one third of his term of service was past, +and two years more, God willing, would see him home again. This was +Margaret's view of it. Mr. Bilkins's view of it was not so cheerful The +prospect of Mr. O'Rourke's ultimate return was anything but enchanting. +Mr. Bilkins was by no means disposed to kill the fatted calf. He would +much rather have killed the Prodigal Son. However, there was always this +chance: he might never come back. + +The tides rose and fell at the Rivermouth wharves; the summer moonlight +and the winter snow, in turn, bleached its quiet streets; and the two +years had nearly gone by. In the mean time nothing had been heard of +O'Rourke. If he ever received the five or six letters sent to him, he +did not fatigue himself by answering them. + +"Larry's all right," said hopeful Margaret. "If any harum had come to +the gossoon, we'd have knowed it. It's the bad news that travels fast." + +Mr. Bilkins was not so positive about that. It had taken a whole year to +find out that O'Rourke had not drowned himself. + +The period of Mr. O'Rourke's enlistment had come to an end. Two months +slipped by, and he had neglected to brighten River-mouth with his +presence. There were many things that might have detained him, +difficulties in getting his prize-papers or in drawing his pay; but +there was no reason why he might not have written. The days were +beginning to grow long to Margaret, and vague forebodings of misfortune +possessed her. + +Perhaps we had better look up Mr. O'Rourke. + +He had seen some rough times, during those three years, and some harder +work than catching cunners at the foot of Anchor Street, or setting +out crocuses in Mr. Bil-kins's back garden. He had seen battles and +shipwreck, and death in many guises; but they had taught him nothing, +as the sequel will show. With his active career in the navy we shall not +trouble ourselves; we take him up at a date a little prior to the close +of his term of service. + +Several months before, he had been transferred from the blockading +squadron to a gun-boat attached to the fleet operating against the forts +defending New Orleans. The forts had fallen, the fleet had passed on to +the city, and Mr. O'Rourke's ship lay off in the stream, binding up her +wounds. In three days he would receive his discharge, and the papers +entitling him to a handsome amount of prize-money in addition to his +pay. With noble contempt for so much good fortune, Mr. O'Rourke dropped +over the bows of the gun-boat one evening and managed to reach the +levee. In the city he fell in with some soldiers, and, being of a +convivial nature, caroused with them that night, and next day enlisted +in a cavalry regiment. + +Desertion in the face of the enemy--for, though the city lay under +Federal guns, it was still hostile enough--involved the heaviest +penalties. O'Rourke was speedily arrested with other deserters, tried by +court-martial, and sentenced to death. + +The intelligence burst like a shell upon the quiet household in Anchor +Street, listening daily for the sound of Larry O'Rourke's footstep on +the threshold. It was a heavy load for Margaret to bear, after all those +years of patient vigil. But the load was to be lightened for her. In +consideration of O'Rourke's long service, and in view of the fact that +his desertion so near the expiration of his time was an absurdity, the +Good President commuted his sentence to imprisonment for life, with +loss of prize-money and back pay. Mr. O'Rourke was despatched North, and +placed in Moyamensing Prison. + +If joy could kill, Margaret would have been a dead woman the day these +tidings reached Rivermouth; and Mr. Bilkins himself would have been in a +critical condition, for, though he did not want O'Rourke shot or hanged, +he was delighted to have him permanently shelved. + +After the excitement was over, and this is always the trying time, +Margaret accepted the situation philosophically. + +"The pore lad's out o' harum's rache, any way," she reflected. "He can't +be git-tin' into hot wather now, and that's a fact. And maybe after +awhiles they 'll let him go agin. They let out murtherers and thaves and +sich like, and Larry's done no hurt to nobody but hisself." + +Margaret was inclined to be rather severe on President Lincoln for +taking away Larry's prize-money. The impression was strong on her mind +that the money went into Mr. Lincoln's private exchequer. + +"I would n't wonder if Misthress Lincoln had a new silk gownd or two +this fall," Margaret would remark, sarcastically. + +The prison rules permitted Mr. O'Rourke to receive periodical +communications "from his friends outside." Once every quarter Mr. Bilkins +wrote him a letter, and in the interim Margaret kept him supplied with +those doleful popular ballads, printed on broadsides, which one sees +pinned up for sale on the iron railings of city churchyards, and seldom +anywhere else. They seem the natural exhalations of the mould and +pathos of such places, but we have a suspicion that they are written +by sentimental young undertakers. Though these songs must have been a +solace to Mr. O'Rourke in his captivity, he never so far forgot himself +as to acknowledge their receipt. It was only through the kindly chaplain +of the prison that Margaret was now and then advised of the well-being +of her husband. + +Towards the close of that year the great O'Rourke himself did condescend +to write one letter. As this letter has never been printed, and as it is +the only specimen extant of Mr. O'Rourke's epistolary manner, we lay it +before the reader _verbatim et literatim_:-- + + _febuary. 1864 mi belovid wife + fur the luv of God sind mee pop gose the wezel. + yours till deth_ + . _larry O rourke._ + +"Pop goes the Weasel" was sent to him, and Mr. Bilkins ingeniously +slipped into the same envelope "The Drunkard's Death" and "Beware of +the Bowl," two spirited compositions well calculated to exert a salutary +influence over a man imprisoned for life. + +There is nothing in this earthly existence so uncertain as what seems +to be a certainty. To all appearances, the world outside of Moyamensing +Prison was forever a closed book to O'Rourke. But the Southern +Confederacy collapsed, the General Amnesty Proclamation was issued, cell +doors were thrown open; and one afternoon Mr. Larry O'Rourke, with +his head neatly shaved, walked into the Bilkins kitchen and frightened +Margaret nearly out of her skin. + +Mr. O'Rourke's summing up of his case was characteristic: "I 've been +kilt in battle, hanged by the court-martial, put into the lock-up for +life, and here I am, bedad, not a ha'p'orth the worse for it." + +None the worse for it, certainly, and none the better. By no stretch +of magical fiction can we make an angel of him. He is not at all the +material for an apotheosis. It was not for him to reform and settle +down, and become a respectable, oppressed tax-payer. His conduct in +Rivermouth, after his return, was a repetition of his old ways. Margaret +all but broke down under the tests to which he put her affections, and +came at last to wish that Larry had never got out of Moyamensing Prison. + +If any change had taken place in Mr. O'Rourke, it showed itself in +occasional fits of sullenness towards Margaret. It was in one of these +moods that he slouched his hat over his brows, and told her she need not +wait dinner for him. + +It will be a cold dinner, if Margaret has kept it waiting; for two years +have gone by since that day, and O'Rourke has not come home. + +Possibly he is off on a whaling voyage; possibly the swift maelstrom has +dragged him down; perhaps he is lifting his hand to knock at the door of +the Bilkins mansion as we pen these words. But Margaret does not watch +for him impatiently any more. There are strands of gray in her black +hair. 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