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+Project Gutenberg's Cynthia Wakeham's Money, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+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: Cynthia Wakeham's Money
+
+Author: Anna Katharine Green
+
+Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36758]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WORKS BY
+
+Anna Katharine Green
+
+    THE LEAVENWORTH CASE.
+    A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.
+    THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES.
+    HAND AND RING.
+    THE MILL MYSTERY.
+    BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
+    CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY.
+    MARKED "PERSONAL."
+    MISS HURD: AN ENIGMA.
+    DR. IZARD.
+    THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR.
+    LOST MAN'S LANE.
+    AGATHA WEBB.
+    ONE OF MY SONS.
+    THE OLD STONE HOUSE.
+    7 TO 12 AND X. Y. Z.
+    THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK.
+    THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE, AND OTHER POEMS.
+    RISIFI'S DAUGHTER. A DRAMA.
+    THE HOUSE OF THE WHISPERING PINES.
+
+
+    G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+    NEW YORK & LONDON
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "'Let me have it!' cried Huckins. 'I have lived in this
+hole for fifteen years, till I have almost rotted away like the place
+itself!'"]
+
+
+
+
+Cynthia Wakeham's Money
+
+By
+
+Anna Katharine Green
+
+Author of "The Leavenworth Case," "Hand and Ring," "The Mill Mystery,"
+"The Defence of the Bride," etc.
+
+
+
+
+    G. P. Putnam's Sons
+    New York and London
+    The Knickerbocker Press
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1892
+
+BY
+
+ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
+
+Entered at Stationers' Hall, London BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+
+
+
+Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+A VILLAGE MYSTERY.
+
+ CHAPTER.                                         PAGE.
+
+       I. A WOMAN'S FACE                             1
+
+      II. A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE                      10
+
+     III. CONTINUATION OF A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE      27
+
+      IV. FLINT AND STEEL                           36
+
+       V. DIFFICULTIES                              45
+
+      VI. YOUNG MEN'S FANCIES                       55
+
+     VII. THE WAY OPENS                             71
+
+    VIII. A SEARCH AND ITS RESULTS                  80
+
+      IX. THE TWO SISTERS                           92
+
+       X. DORIS                                     97
+
+      XI. LOVE                                     109
+
+     XII. HOW MUCH DID IT MEAN?                    122
+
+    XIII. FRESH DOUBTS                             142
+
+     XIV. IN THE NIGHT WATCHES                     150
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+THE SECRET OF THE LABORATORY.
+
+      XV. THE BEGINNING OF CHANGES                 158
+
+     XVI. A STRANGE VISITOR                        169
+
+    XVII. TWO CONVERSATIONS                        181
+
+   XVIII. SUSPENSE                                 193
+
+     XIX. A DISCOVERY                              205
+
+      XX. THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON                     213
+
+     XXI. IN THE LABORATORY                        232
+
+    XXII. STEEL MEETS STEEL                        239
+
+   XXIII. A GROWING HORROR                         249
+
+    XXIV. FATHER AND CHILD                         261
+
+     XXV. EDGAR AND FRANK                          272
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+UNCLE AND NIECE.
+
+    XXVI. THE WHITE POWDER                         279
+
+   XXVII. THE HAND OF HUCKINS                      286
+
+  XXVIII. IN EXTREMITY                             300
+
+    XXIX. IN THE POPLAR WALK                       307
+
+     XXX. THE FINAL TERROR                         315
+
+    XXXI. AN EVENTFUL QUARTER OF AN HOUR           327
+
+   XXXII. THE SPECTRE OF THE LABORATORY            332
+
+
+
+
+CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+A VILLAGE MYSTERY.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+A WOMAN'S FACE.
+
+
+It was verging towards seven o'clock. The train had just left Marston
+station, and two young men stood on the platform surveying with very
+different eyes the stretch of country landscape lying before them. Frank
+Etheridge wore an eager aspect, the aspect of the bright, hopeful,
+energetic lawyer which he was, and his quick searching gaze flashed
+rapidly from point to point as if in one of the scattered homes within
+his view he sought an answer to some problem at present agitating his
+mind. He was a stranger in Marston.
+
+His companion, Edgar Sellick, wore a quieter air, or at least one more
+restrained. He was a native of the place, and was returning to it after
+a short and fruitless absence in the west, to resume his career of
+physician amid the scenes of his earliest associations. Both were tall,
+well-made, and handsome, and, to draw at once a distinction between them
+which will effectually separate their personalities, Frank Etheridge was
+a man to attract the attention of men, and Edgar Sellick that of women;
+the former betraying at first glance all his good qualities in the
+keenness of his eye and the frankness of his smile, and the latter
+hiding his best impulses under an air of cynicism so allied to
+melancholy that imagination was allowed free play in his behalf. They
+had attended the same college and had met on the train by chance.
+
+"I am expecting old Jerry, with a buggy," announced Edgar, looking
+indifferently down the road. The train was on time but Jerry was not,
+both of which facts were to be expected. "Ah, here he comes. You will
+ride to the tavern with me?"
+
+"With pleasure," was Frank's cheerful reply; "but what will you do with
+Jerry? He's a mile too large, as you see yourself, to be a third party
+in a buggy ride."
+
+"No doubt about that, but Jerry can walk; it will help to rob him of a
+little of his avoirdupois. As his future physician I shall prescribe it.
+I cannot have you miss the supper I have telegraphed for at Henly's."
+
+And being a determined man, he carried this scheme through, to Jerry's
+manifest but cheerfully accepted discomfort. As they were riding off,
+Edgar leaned from the buggy, and Frank heard him say to his panting
+follower:
+
+"Is it known in town that I am coming to-night?" To which that panting
+follower shrilly replied: "Ay, sir, and Tim Jones has lit a bond-fire
+and Jack Skelton hoisted a flag, so glad they be to have you back. Old
+Dudgeon was too intimate with the undertaker, sir. We hopes as you will
+turn a cold shoulder to him--the undertaker, I mean."
+
+At which Frank observed his friend give one of his peculiar smiles which
+might mean so little and might mean so much, but whatever it meant had
+that touch of bittersweet in it which at once hurts and attracts.
+
+"You like your profession?" Frank abruptly asked.
+
+Edgar turned, surveyed the other questioningly for a moment, then
+remarked:
+
+"Not as you like yours. Law seems to be a passion with you."
+
+Frank laughed. "Why not? I have no other love, why not give all my heart
+to that?"
+
+Edgar did not answer; he was looking straight before him at the lights
+in the village they were now rapidly approaching.
+
+"How strange it is we should have met in this way," exclaimed the young
+lawyer. "It is mighty fortunate for me, whatever it may be for you. You
+know all the people in town, and perhaps can tell me what will shorten
+my stay into hours."
+
+"Do you call that fortunate?" interrogated the other with one of his
+quiet smiles.
+
+"Well, no, only from a business view. But you see, Edgar, it is so
+short a time since I have thought of anything but business, that I have
+hardly got used to the situation. I should be sorry, now I come to think
+of it, to say good-by to you before I heard how you had enjoyed life
+since we parted on a certain Commencement day. You look older, while
+I----"
+
+He laughed. How merry the sound, and how the growing twilight seemed to
+brighten at it! Edgar looked for a moment as if he envied him that
+laugh, then he said:
+
+"You are not tripped up by petty obstacles. You have wings to your feet
+and soar above small disappointments. My soles cling to the ground and
+encounter there difficulty after difficulty. Hence the weariness with
+which I gain anything. But your business here,--what is it? You say I
+can aid you. How?"
+
+"Oh, it is a long story which will help to enliven our evening meal. Let
+us wait till then. At present I am interested in what I see before me.
+Snug homes, Edgar, and an exquisite landscape."
+
+The other, whose face for the last few minutes had been gradually
+settling into sterner and sterner lines, nodded automatically but did
+not look up from the horse he was driving.
+
+"Who lives in these houses? Old friends of yours?" Frank continued.
+
+Edgar nodded again, whipped his horse and for an instant allowed his
+eyes to wander up and down the road.
+
+"I used to know them all," he acknowledged, "but I suppose there have
+been changes."
+
+His tone had altered, his very frame had stiffened. Frank looked at him
+curiously.
+
+"You seem to be in a hurry," he remarked. "I enjoy this twilight drive,
+and--haloo! this is an odd old place we are coming to. Suppose you pull
+up and let me look at it."
+
+His companion, with a strange glance and an awkward air of
+dissatisfaction, did as he was bid, and Frank leaning from the buggy
+gazed long and earnestly at the quaint old house and grounds which had
+attracted his attention. Edgar did not follow his example but sat
+unmoved, looking fixedly at the last narrow strip of orange light that
+separated night from day on the distant horizon.
+
+"I feel as if I had come upon something uncanny," murmured Frank. "Look
+at that double row of poplars stretching away almost as far as we can
+see? Is it not an ideal Ghost's Walk, especially in this hour of falling
+shadows. I never saw anything so suggestive in a country landscape
+before. Each tree looks like a spectre hob-nobbing with its neighbor.
+Tell me that this is a haunted house which guards this avenue. Nothing
+less weird should dominate a spot so peculiar."
+
+"Frank, I did not know you were so fanciful," exclaimed the other,
+lashing his horse with a stinging whip.
+
+"Wait, wait! I am not fanciful, it is the place that is curious. If you
+were not in a hurry for your supper you would see it too. Come, give it
+a look. You may have observed it a hundred times before, but by this
+light you must acknowledge that it looks like a place with a history.
+Come, now, don't it?"
+
+Edgar drew in his horse for the second time and impatiently allowed his
+glance to follow in the direction indicated by his friend. What he saw
+has already been partially described. But details will not be amiss
+here, as the house and its surroundings were really unique, and bespoke
+an antiquity of which few dwellings can now boast even in the most
+historic parts of Connecticut.
+
+The avenue of poplars which had first attracted Frank's attention had
+this notable peculiarity, that it led from nowhere to nowhere. That is,
+it was not, as is usual in such cases, made the means of approach to the
+house, but on the contrary ran along its side from road to rear, thick,
+compact, and gruesome. The house itself was of timber, and was both gray
+and weather-beaten. It was one of the remnants of that old time when a
+family homestead rambled in all directions under a huge roof which
+accommodated itself to each new projection, like the bark to its tree.
+In this case the roof sloped nearly to the ground on one side, while on
+the other it beetled over a vine-clad piazza. In front of the house and
+on both sides of it rose a brick wall that, including the two rows of
+trees within its jealous cordon, shut off the entire premises from those
+of the adjoining neighbors, and gave to the whole place an air of
+desolation and remoteness which the smoke rising from its one tall
+chimney did not seem to soften or relieve. Yet old as it all was, there
+was no air of decay about the spot, nor was the garden neglected or the
+vines left untrimmed.
+
+"The home of a hermit," quoth Frank. "You know who lives there of
+course, but if you did not I would wager that it is some old scion of
+the past----"
+
+Suddenly he stopped, suddenly his hand was laid on the horse's rein
+falling somewhat slack in the grasp of his companion. A lamp had at that
+instant been brought into one of the front rooms of the house he was
+contemplating, and the glimpse he thus caught of the interior attracted
+his eyes and even arrested the gaze of the impatient Edgar. For the
+woman who held the lamp was no common one, and the face which showed
+above it was one to stop any man who had an eye for the beautiful, the
+inscrutable, and the tragic. As Frank noted it and marked its exquisite
+lines, its faultless coloring, and that air of profound and mysterious
+melancholy which made it stand out distinctly in the well-lighted space
+about it, he tightened his grip on the reins he had snatched, till the
+horse stood still in the road, and Edgar impatiently watching him,
+perceived that the gay look had crept from his face, leaving there an
+expression of indefinable yearning which at once transfigured and
+ennobled it.
+
+"What beauty! What unexpected beauty!" Frank whispered at last. "Did you
+ever see its like, Edgar?"
+
+The answer came with Edgar's most cynical smile:
+
+"Wait till she turns her head."
+
+And at that moment she did turn it. On the instant Frank drew in his
+breath and Edgar expected to see him drop his hand from the reins and
+sink back disillusionized and indifferent. But he did not. On the
+contrary, his attitude betrayed a still deeper interest and longing, and
+murmuring, "How sad! poor girl!" he continued to gaze till Edgar, with
+one strange, almost shrinking look in the direction of the unconscious
+girl now moving abstractedly across the room, tore the reins from his
+hands and started the horse again towards their place of destination.
+
+Frank, whom the sudden movement seemed to awaken as from a dream,
+glanced for a moment almost angrily at his companion, then he settled
+back in his seat, saying nothing till the lights of the tavern became
+visible, when he roused himself and inquired:
+
+"Who is that girl, Edgar, and how did she become so disfigured?"
+
+"I don't know," was the short reply; "she has always been so, I believe,
+at least since I remember seeing her. It looks like the scar of a wound,
+but I have never heard any explanation given of it."
+
+"Her name, Edgar?"
+
+"Hermione Cavanagh."
+
+"You know her?"
+
+"Somewhat."
+
+"Are you"--the words came with a pant, shortly, intensely, and as if
+forced from him--"in love--with her?"
+
+"No." Edgar's passion seemed for the moment to be as great as that of
+the other. "How came you to think of such a thing?"
+
+"Because--because," Frank whispered almost humbly, "you seemed so short
+in your replies, and because, I might as well avow it, she seems to me
+one to command the love of all men."
+
+"Well, sirs, here I be as quick as you," shouted a voice in their rear,
+and old Jerry came lumbering forward, just in time to hold their horse
+as they alighted at the tavern.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE.
+
+
+Supper that night did not bring to these two friends all the enjoyment
+which they had evidently anticipated. In the first place it was
+continually interrupted by greetings to the young physician whose
+unexpected return to his native town had awakened in all classes a
+decided enthusiasm. Then Frank was moody, he who was usually gaiety
+itself. He wanted to talk about the beautiful and unfortunate Miss
+Cavanagh, and Edgar did not, and this created embarrassment between
+them, an embarrassment all the more marked that there seemed to be some
+undefined reason for Edgar's reticence not to be explained by any
+obvious cause. At length Frank broke out impetuously:
+
+"If you won't tell me anything about this girl, I must look up some one
+who will. Those cruel marks on her face have completed the charm of her
+beauty, and not till I know something of their history and of her, will
+I go to sleep to-night. So much for the impression which a woman's face
+can make upon an unsusceptible man."
+
+"Frank," observed the other, coldly, "I should say that your time might
+be much better employed in relating to me the cause for your being in
+Marston."
+
+The young lawyer started, shook himself, and laughed.
+
+"Oh, true, I had forgotten," said he, and supper being now over he got
+up and began pacing the floor. "Do you know any one here by the name of
+Harriet Smith?"
+
+"No," returned the other, "but I have been away a year, and many persons
+may have come into town in that time."
+
+"But I mean an old resident," Frank explained, "a lady of years,
+possibly a widow."
+
+"I never heard of such a person," rejoined Edgar. "Are you sure there is
+such a woman in town? I should be apt to know it if there were."
+
+"I am not sure she is here now, or for that matter that she is living,
+but if she is not and I learn the names and whereabouts of any heirs she
+may have left behind her, I shall be satisfied with the results of my
+journey. Harriet Smith! Surely you have heard of her."
+
+"No," Edgar protested, "I have not."
+
+"It is odd," remarked Frank, wrinkling his brows in some perplexity. "I
+thought I should have no trouble in tracing her. Not that I care," he
+avowed with brightening countenance. "On the contrary, I can scarcely
+quarrel with a fact that promises to detain me in your company for a few
+days."
+
+"No? Then your mind has suddenly changed in that regard," Edgar dryly
+insinuated.
+
+Frank blushed. "I think not," was his laughing reply. "But let me tell
+my story. It may interest you in a pursuit that I begin to see is likely
+to possess difficulties." And lighting a cigar, he sat down with his
+friend by the open window. "I do not suppose you know much about
+Brooklyn, or, if you do, that you are acquainted with that portion of it
+which is called Flatbush. I will therefore explain that this outlying
+village is a very old one, antedating the Revolution. Though within a
+short car-drive from the great city, it has not yet given up its life to
+it, but preserves in its one main street at least, a certain
+individuality which still connects it with the past. My office, as you
+know, is in New York, but I have several clients in Brooklyn and one or
+two in Flatbush, so I was not at all surprised, though considerably put
+out, when one evening, just as I was about to start for the theatre, a
+telegram was handed me by the janitor, enjoining me to come without
+delay to Flatbush prepared to draw up the will of one, Cynthia Wakeham,
+lying, as the sender of the telegram declared, at the point of death.
+Though I knew neither this name, nor that of the man who signed it,
+which was Hiram Huckins, and had no particular desire to change the
+place of my destination at that hour, I had really no good reason for
+declining the business thus offered me. So making a virtue of necessity,
+I gave up the theatre and started instead for Flatbush, which, from the
+house where I lodge in upper New York, is a good hour and a half's ride
+even by the way of the bridge and the elevated roads. It was therefore
+well on towards ten o'clock before I arrived in the shaded street which
+in the daylight and in the full brightness of a summer's sun I had
+usually found so attractive, but which at night and under the
+circumstances which had brought me there looked both sombre and
+forbidding. However I had not come upon an errand of pleasure, so I did
+not spend much time in contemplating my surroundings, but beckoning to
+the conductor of the street-car on which I was riding, I asked him if he
+knew Mrs. Wakeham's house, and when he nodded, asked him to set me down
+before it. I thought he gave me a queer look, but as his attention was
+at that moment diverted, I could not be sure of it, and before he came
+my way again the car had stopped and he was motioning to me to alight.
+
+"'That is the house,' said he, pointing to two huge gate-posts
+glimmering whitely in the light of a street-lamp opposite, and I was on
+the sidewalk and in front of the two posts before I remembered that a
+man on the rear platform of the car had muttered as I stepped by him: 'A
+visitor for Widow Wakeham, eh; she _must_ be sick, then!'
+
+"The house stood back a short distance from the street, and as I
+entered the gate, which by the way looked as if it would tumble down if
+I touched it, I could see nothing but a gray mass with one twinkling
+light in it. But as I drew nearer I became aware that it was not a
+well-kept and hospitable mansion towards which I was tending, however
+imposing might be its size and general structure. If only from the
+tangled growth of the shrubbery about me and the long dank stalks of the
+weeds that lay as if undisturbed by mortal feet upon the walk, I could
+gather that whatever fortune Mrs. Wakeham might have to leave she had
+not expended much in the keeping of her home. But it was upon reaching
+the house I experienced the greatest surprise. There were walls before
+me, no doubt, and a huge portico, but the latter was hanging as it were
+by faith to supports so dilapidated that even the darkness of that late
+hour could not hide their ruin or the impending fall of the whole
+structure. So old, so uncared-for, and so utterly out of keeping with
+the errand upon which I had come looked the whole place that I
+instinctively drew back, assured that the conductor had made some
+mistake in directing me thither. But no sooner had I turned my back upon
+the house, than a window was thrown up over my head and I heard the
+strangely eager voice of a man say:
+
+"'This is the place, sir. Wait, and I will open the door for you.'
+
+"I did as he bade me, though not without some reluctance. The voice,
+for all its tone of anxiety, sounded at once false and harsh, and I
+instinctively associated with it a harsh and false face. The house, too,
+did not improve in appearance upon approach. The steps shook under my
+tread, and I could not but notice by the faint light sifting through the
+bushes from the lamp on the other side of the way, that the balustrades
+had been pulled from their places, leaving only gaping holes to mark
+where they had once been. The door was intact, but in running my hand
+over it I discovered that the mouldings had been stripped from its face,
+and that the knocker, hanging as it did by one nail, was ready to fall
+at the first provocation. If Cynthia Wakeham lived here, it would be
+interesting to know the extent of her wealth. As there seemed to be some
+delay in the opening of the door, I had time to note that the grounds
+(all of these houses have grounds about them) were of some extent, but,
+as I have said, in a manifest condition of overgrowth and neglect. As I
+mused upon the contrast they must afford in the bright daylight to the
+wide and well-kept lawns of the more ambitious owners on either side, a
+footstep sounded on the loose boards which had evidently been flung down
+at one side of the house as a sort of protection to the foot from the
+darkness and mud of the neglected path, and a woman's form swung dimly
+into view, laden with a great pile of what looked to me like brushwood.
+As she passed she seemed to become conscious of my presence, and,
+looking up, she let the huge bundle slip slowly from her shoulders till
+it lay in the darkness at her feet.
+
+"'Are you,' she whispered, coming close to the foot of the steps, 'going
+in there?'
+
+"'Yes,' I returned, struck by the mingled surprise and incredulity in
+her tone.
+
+"She stood still a minute, then came up a step.
+
+"'Are you a minister?' she asked.
+
+"'No,' I laughed; 'why?'
+
+"She seemed to reason with herself before saying: 'No one ever goes into
+that house; I thought perhaps you did not know. They won't have any one.
+Would you mind telling me,' she went on, in a hungry whisper almost
+thrilling to hear, coming as it did through the silence and darkness of
+the night, 'what you find in the house? I will be at the gate, sir,
+and----'
+
+"She paused, probably awed by the force of my exclamation, and picking
+up her bundle of wet boughs, slunk away, but not without turning more
+than once before she reached the gate. Scarcely had she disappeared into
+the street when a window went up in a neighboring house. At the same
+moment, some one, I could not tell whether it was a man or a woman, came
+up the path as far as the first trees and there paused, while a shrill
+voice called out:
+
+"'They never unlocks that door; visitors ain't wanted.'
+
+"Evidently, if I were not admitted soon I should have the whole
+neighborhood about me.
+
+"I lifted the knocker, but it came off in my hand. Angry at the
+mischance, and perhaps a little moved by the excitement of my position,
+I raised the broken piece of iron and gave a thundering knock on the
+rotten panels before me. Instantly the door opened, creaking ominously
+as it did so, and a man stood in the gap with a wretched old kerosene
+lamp in his hand. The apologetic leer on his evil countenance did not
+for a moment deceive me.
+
+"'I beg your pardon,' he hurriedly exclaimed, and his voice showed he
+was a man of education, notwithstanding his forlorn and wretched
+appearance, 'but the old woman had a turn just as you came, and I could
+not leave her.'
+
+"I looked at him, and instinct told me to quit the spot and not enter a
+house so vilely guarded. For the man was not only uncouth to the last
+degree in dress and aspect, but sinister in expression and servilely
+eager in bearing.
+
+"'Won't you come in?' he urged. 'The old woman is past talking, but she
+can make signs; perhaps an hour from now she will not be able to do even
+that.'
+
+"'Do you allude to the woman who wishes to make her will?' I asked.
+
+"'Yes,' he answered, greedily, 'Cynthia Wakeham, my sister.' And he
+gently pushed the door in a way that forced me to enter or show myself a
+coward.
+
+"I took heart and went in. What poverty I beheld before me in the light
+of that solitary smoking lamp! If the exterior of the house bore the
+marks of devastation, what shall I say of the barren halls and denuded
+rooms which now opened before me? Not a chair greeted my eyes, though a
+toppling stool here and there showed that people sat in this place. Nor
+did I see a table, though somewhere in some remote region beyond the
+staircase I heard the clatter of plates, as if eating were also known in
+this home of almost ostentatious penury. Staircase I say, but I should
+have said steps, for the balustrades were missing here just as they had
+been missing without, and not even a rail remained to speak of old-time
+comfort and prosperity.
+
+"'I am very poor,' humbly remarked the man, answering my look of
+perplexity. 'It is my sister who has the money.' And moving towards the
+stairs, he motioned me to ascend.
+
+"Even then I recoiled, not knowing what to make of this adventure; but
+hearing a hollow groan from above, uttered in tones unmistakably
+feminine, I remembered my errand and went up, followed so closely by the
+man, that his breath, mingled with the smell of that vile lamp, seemed
+to pant on my shoulder. I shall never smell kerosene again without
+recalling the sensations of that moment.
+
+"Arriving at the top of the stair, up which my distorted shadow had gone
+before me, I saw an open door and went in. A woman was lying in one
+corner on a hard and uncomfortable bed, a woman whose eyes drew me to
+her side before a word had been spoken.
+
+"She was old and in the last gasp of some fatal disease. But it was not
+this which impressed me most. It was the searching look with which she
+greeted me,--a piteous, hunted look, like that of some wild animal
+driven to bay and turning upon her conqueror for some signs of relenting
+or pity. It made the haggard face eloquent; it assured me without a word
+that some great wrong had been done or was about to be done, and that I
+must show myself at once her friend if I would gain her confidence.
+
+"Advancing to her side, I spoke to her kindly, asking if she were
+Cynthia Wakeham, and if she desired the services of a lawyer.
+
+"She at once nodded painfully but unmistakably, and, lifting her hand,
+pointed to her lips and shook her head.
+
+"'She means that she cannot speak', explained the man, in a pant, over
+my shoulder.
+
+"Moving a step aside in my disgust, I said to her, not to him:
+
+"'But you can hear?'
+
+"Her intelligent eye responded before her head could add its painful
+acquiescence.
+
+"'And you have property to leave?'
+
+"'This house', answered the man.
+
+"My eyes wandered mechanically to the empty cupboards about me from
+which the doors had been wrenched and, as I now saw from the looks of
+the fireplace, burned.
+
+"'The ground--the ground is worth something,' quoth the man.
+
+"'The avidity with which he spoke satisfied me at least upon one
+point--_he_ was the expectant heir.
+
+"'Your name?' I asked, turning sharply upon him.
+
+"'Hiram Huckins.'
+
+"It was the name attached to the telegram.
+
+"'And you are the brother of this woman?'
+
+"'Yes, yes.'
+
+"I had addressed him, but I looked at her. She answered my look with a
+steadfast gaze, but there was no dissent in it, and I considered that
+point settled.
+
+"'She is a married woman, then?'
+
+"'A widow; husband died long years ago.'
+
+"'Any children?'
+
+"'No.' And I saw in her face that he spoke the truth.
+
+"'But you and she have brothers or sisters? You are not her only
+relative?'
+
+"'I am the only one who has stuck by her,' he sullenly answered. 'We did
+have a sister, but she is gone; fled from home years ago; lost in the
+great world; dead, perhaps. _She_ don't care for her; ask her.'
+
+"I did ask her, but the haggard face said nothing. The eyes burned, but
+they had a waiting look.
+
+"'To whom do you want to leave your property?' I inquired of her
+pointedly.
+
+"Had she glanced at the man, had her face even changed, or so much as a
+tremor shook her rigid form, I might have hesitated. But the quiet way
+in which she lifted her hand and pointed with one finger in his
+direction while she looked straight at me, convinced me that whatever
+was wrong, her mind was made up as to the disposal of her property. So
+taking out my papers, I sat down on the rude bench drawn up beside the
+bed and began to write.
+
+"The man stood behind me with the lamp. He was so eager and bent over
+me so closely that the smell of the lamp and his nearness were more than
+I could bear.
+
+"'Set down the lamp,' I cried. 'Get a table--something--don't lean over
+me like that.'
+
+"But there was nothing, actually nothing for him to put the lamp on, and
+I was forced to subdue my disgust and get used as best I could to his
+presence and to his great shadow looming on the wall behind us. But I
+could not get used to her eyes hurrying me, and my hand trembled as I
+wrote.
+
+"'Have you any name but Cynthia?' I inquired, looking up.
+
+"She painfully shook her head.
+
+"'You had better tell me what her husband's name was,' I suggested to
+the brother.
+
+"'John Lapham Wakeham,' was the quick reply.
+
+"I wrote down both names. Then I said, looking intently at the dying
+widow:
+
+"'As you cannot speak, you must make signs. Shake your hand when you
+wish to say no, and move it up and down when you wish to say yes. Do you
+understand?'
+
+"She signalled somewhat impatiently that she did, and then, lifting her
+hand with a tremulous movement, pointed anxiously towards a large Dutch
+clock, which was the sole object of adornment in the room.
+
+"'She urges you to hurry,' whispered the man. 'Make it short, make it
+short. The doctor I called in this morning said she might die any
+minute.'
+
+"As from her appearance I judged this to be only too possible, I hastily
+wrote a few words more, and then asked:
+
+"'Is this property all that you have to leave?'
+
+"I had looked at her, though I knew it would be the man who would
+answer.
+
+"'Yes, yes, this house,' he cried. 'Put it strong; this house and all
+there is in it.'
+
+"I thought of its barren rooms and empty cupboards, and a strange fancy
+seized me. Going straight to the woman, I leaned over her and said:
+
+"'Is it your desire to leave all that you possess to this brother? Real
+property and personal, this house, and also everything it contains?'
+
+"She did not answer, even by a sign, but pointed again to the clock.
+
+"'She means that you are to go right on,' he cried. 'And indeed you
+must,' he pursued, eagerly. 'She won't be able to sign her name if you
+wait much longer.'
+
+"I felt the truth of this, and yet I hesitated.
+
+"'Where are the witnesses?' I asked. 'She must have two witnesses to her
+signature.'
+
+"'Won't I do for one?' he inquired.
+
+"'No,' I returned; 'the one benefited by a will is disqualified from
+witnessing it.'
+
+"He looked confounded for a moment. Then he stepped to the door and
+shouted, 'Briggs! Briggs!'
+
+"As if in answer there came a clatter as of falling dishes, and as
+proof of the slavery which this woman had evidently been under to his
+avarice, she gave a start, dying as she was, and turned upon him with a
+frightened gaze, as if she expected from him an ebullition of wrath.
+
+"'Briggs, is there a light in Mr. Thompson's house?'
+
+"'Yes,' answered a gruff voice from the foot of the stairs.
+
+"'Go then, and ask him or the first person you see there, if he will
+come in here for a minute. Be very polite and don't swear, or I won't
+pay you the money I promised you. Say that Mrs. Wakeham is dying, and
+that the lawyer is drawing up her will. Get James Sotherby to come too,
+and if he won't do it, somebody else who is respectable. Everything must
+be very legal, sir,' he explained, turning to me, 'very legal.'
+
+"Not knowing what to think of this man, but seeing only one thing to
+do, I nodded, and asked the woman whom I should name as executor. She at
+once indicated her brother, and as I wrote in his name and concluded the
+will, she watched me with an intentness that made my nerves creep,
+though I am usually anything but susceptible to such influences. When
+the document was ready I rose and stood at her side in some doubt of the
+whole transaction. Was it her will I had expressed in the paper I held
+before me, or his? Had she been constrained by his influence to do what
+she was doing, or was her mind free to act and but obeying its natural
+instincts? I determined to make one effort at finding out. Turning
+towards the man, I said firmly:
+
+"'Before Mrs. Wakeham signs this will she must know exactly what it
+contains. I can read it to her, but I prefer her to read the paper for
+herself. Get her glasses, then, if she needs them, and bring them here
+at once, or I throw up this business and take the document away with me
+out of the house.'
+
+"'But she has no glasses,' he protested; 'they were broken long ago.'
+
+"'Get them,' I cried; 'or get yours,--she shall not sign that document
+till you do.'
+
+"But he stood hesitating, loth, as I now believe, to leave us together,
+though that was exactly what I desired, which she, seeing, feverishly
+clutched my sleeve, and, with a force of which I should not have thought
+her capable, made wild gestures to the effect that I should not delay
+any longer, but read it to her myself.
+
+"Seeing by this, as I thought, that her own feelings were,
+notwithstanding my doubts, really engaged in the same direction as his,
+I desisted from my efforts to separate the two, if it were only for a
+moment, and read the will aloud. It ran thus:
+
+    "The last will and testament of Cynthia Wakeham, widow of John
+    Lapham Wakeham, of Flatbush, Kings County, New York.
+
+    "First: I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses to be
+    paid.
+
+    "Second: I give, devise, and bequeath to my brother, Hiram
+    Huckins, all the property, real and personal, which I own, or to
+    which I may be entitled, at the time of my death, and I appoint
+    him the sole executor of this my last will and testament.
+
+    "Witness my hand this fifth day of June, in the year eighteen
+    hundred and eighty-eight.
+
+    "Signed, published, and declared by the      }
+    Testatrix to be her last will and testament, }
+    in our presence who, at her request and      }
+    in her presence and in the presence of       }
+    each other, have subscribed our names        }
+    hereto as witnesses, on this 5th day of      }
+    June, 1888.                                  }
+
+"'Is that the expression of your wishes?' I asked, when I had finished.
+
+"She nodded, and reached out her hand for the pen.
+
+"'You must wait,' said I, 'for the witnesses.'
+
+"But even as I spoke their approach was heard, and Huckins was forced to
+go to the door with the lamp, for the hall was pitch dark and the stairs
+dangerous. As he turned his back upon us, I thought Mrs. Wakeham moved
+and opened her lips, but I may have been mistaken, for his black and
+ominous shadow lay over her face, and I could discern but little of its
+expression.
+
+"'Is there anything you want?' I asked her, rising and going to the
+bedside.
+
+"But Huckins was alert to all my movements, if he had stepped for a
+moment away.
+
+"'Give her water,' he cried, wheeling sharply about. And pointing to a
+broken glass standing on the floor at her side, he watched me while I
+handed it to her.
+
+"'She mus'n't give out now,' he pursued, with one eye on us and the
+other on the persons coming upstairs.
+
+"'She will not,' I returned, seeing her face brighten at the sound of
+approaching steps.
+
+"'It's Miss Thompson and Mr. Dickey,' now spoke up the gruff voice of
+Briggs from the foot of the steps. 'No other folks was up, so I brought
+them along.'
+
+"The young woman, who at this instant appeared in the doorway, blushed
+and cast a shy look over her shoulder at the fresh-faced man who
+followed her.
+
+"'It's all right, Minnie,' immediately interposed that genial personage,
+with a cheerful smile; 'every one knows we are keeping company and mean
+to be married as soon as the times improve.'
+
+"'Yes, every one knows,' she sighed, and stepped briskly into the room,
+her intelligent face and kindly expression diffusing a cheer about her
+such as the dismal spot had doubtless lacked for years.
+
+"I heard afterward that this interesting couple had been waiting for
+the times to improve, for the last fifteen years."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+CONTINUATION OF A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE.
+
+
+"The two witnesses had scarcely entered the room before the dying woman
+stretched out her hand again for the pen. As I handed it to her and
+placed the document before her on my portfolio, I asked:
+
+"'Do you declare this paper to be your last will and testament and do
+you request these persons to witness it?'
+
+"She bowed a quick acquiescence, and put the pen at the place I pointed
+out to her.
+
+"'Shall I support your hand?' I pursued, fearful she would not have the
+strength to complete the task.
+
+"But she shook her head and wrote her name in hastily, with a feverish
+energy that astonished me. Expecting to see her drop back exhausted if
+not lifeless as the pen left the paper, I drew the document away and
+bent to support her. But she did not need my assistance. Indeed she
+looked stronger than before, and what was still more astonishing, seemed
+even more anxious and burningly eager.
+
+"'Is she holding up till the witnesses have affixed their signatures?'
+I inwardly queried. And intent upon relieving her, I hastily explained
+to them the requirements of the case, and did not myself breathe easily
+till I saw their two names below hers. Then I felt that she could rest;
+but to my surprise but one sigh of relief rose in that room, and that
+was from the cringing, cruel-eyed inheritor, who, at the first
+intimation that the document was duly signed and attested, sprang from
+his corner with such a smile that the place seemed to grow hideous, and
+I drew involuntarily back.
+
+"'Let me have it,' were his first words. 'I have lived in this hole, and
+for fifteen years made myself a slave to her whims, till I have almost
+rotted away like the place itself. And now I want my reward. Let me have
+the will.'
+
+"His hand was on the paper and in my surprise I had almost yielded it up
+to him, when another hand seized it, and the dying, gasping woman,
+mumbling and mouthing, pointed for the third time to the clock and then
+to one corner of the paper, trying to make me understand something I
+entirely failed to comprehend.
+
+"'What is it?' I asked. 'What do you want? Is not the will to your
+liking?'
+
+"'Yes, yes,' her frenzied nods seemed to say, and yet she continued
+pointing to the clock and then to the paper while the angry man before
+her stared and muttered in a mixture of perplexity and alarm which added
+no little to the excitement of the harrowing scene.
+
+"'Let me see if I can tell what she wants,' suddenly observed the young
+woman who had signed the paper as a witness. And bringing her sweet
+womanly face around where the rolling eye of the woman could see her,
+she asked with friendly interest in her tone, 'Do you wish the time of
+day written on the will?'
+
+"Oh, the relief that swept over that poor woman's tortured countenance!
+She nodded and looked up at me so confidingly that in despite of the
+oddity of the request I rapidly penned after the date, the words 'at
+half-past ten o'clock P.M.,' and caused the witnesses to note the
+addition.
+
+"This seemed to satisfy her, and she sank back with a sign that I was to
+yield to her brother's demand and give him the paper he coveted, and
+when I hesitated, started up again with such a frenzied appeal in her
+face that in the terror of seeing her die before our eyes, I yielded it
+to his outstretched hand, expecting at the most to see him put it in his
+pocket.
+
+"But no, the moment he felt it in his grasp, he set down the lamp, and,
+without a look in her direction or a word of thanks to me or the two
+neighbors who had come to his assistance, started rapidly from the room.
+Disturbed and doubting my own wisdom in thus yielding to an impulse of
+humanity which may be called weakness by such strong-minded men as
+yourself, I turned to follow him, but the woman's trembling hand again
+stopped me; and convinced at last that I was alarming myself
+unnecessarily and that she had had as much pleasure in making him her
+heir as he in being made so, I turned to pay her my adieux, when the
+expression of her face, changed now from what it had been to one of hope
+and trembling delight, made me pause again in wonder, and almost
+prepared me for the low and thrilling whisper which now broke from her
+lips in distinct tones.
+
+"'Is he gone?'
+
+"'Then you can speak,' burst from the young woman.
+
+"The widow gave her an eloquent look.
+
+"'I have not spoken,' said she, 'for two days; I have been saving my
+strength. Hark!' she suddenly whispered. 'He has no light, he will pitch
+over the landing. No, no, he has gone by it in safety, he has
+reached----' she paused and listened intently, trembling as she did
+so--'Will he go into _that_ room?--Run! follow! see if he has dared--but
+no, he has gone down to the kitchen,' came in quick glad relief from her
+lips as a distant door shut softly at the back end of the house. 'He is
+leaving the house and will never come back. I am released forever from
+his watchfulness; I am free! Now, sir, draw up another will, quick; let
+these two kind friends wait and see me sign it, and God will bless you
+for your kindness and my eyes will close in peace upon this cruel
+world.'
+
+"Aghast but realizing in a moment that she had but lent herself to her
+brother's wishes in order to rid herself of a surveillance which had
+possibly had an almost mesmeric influence upon her, I opened my
+portfolio again, saying:
+
+"'You declare yourself then to have been unduly influenced by your
+brother in making the will you have just signed in the presence of these
+two witnesses?'
+
+"To which she replied with every evidence of a clear mind----
+
+"'I do; I do. I could not move, I could not breathe, I could not think
+except as he willed it. When he was near, and he was always near, I had
+to do just as he wished--perhaps because I was afraid of him, perhaps
+because he had the stronger will of the two, I do not know; I cannot
+explain it, but he ruled me and has done so all my life till this hour.
+Now he has left me, left me to die, as he thinks, unfriended and alone,
+but I am strong yet, stronger than he knows, and before I turn my face
+to the wall, I will tear my property from his unholy grasp and give it
+where I have always wanted it to go--to my poor, lost, unfortunate
+sister.'
+
+"'Ah,' thought I, 'I see, I see'; and satisfied at last that I was no
+longer being made the minister of an unscrupulous avarice, I hastily
+drew up a second will, only pausing to ask the name of her sister and
+the place of her residence.
+
+"'Her name is Harriet Smith,' was the quick reply, 'and she lived when
+last I heard of her in Marston, a little village in Connecticut. She may
+be dead now, it is so long since I received any news of her,--Hiram
+would never let me write to her,--but she may have had children, and if
+so, they are just as welcome as she is to the little I have to give.'
+
+"'Her children's names?' I asked.
+
+"'I don't know, I don't know anything about her. But you will find out
+everything necessary when I am gone; and if she is living, or has
+children, you will see that they are reinstated in the home of their
+ancestors. For,' she now added eagerly, 'they must come here to live,
+and build up this old house again and make it respectable once more or
+they cannot have my money. I want you to put that in my will; for when I
+have seen these old walls toppling, the doors wrenched off, and its
+lintels demolished for firewood, for _firewood_, sir, I have kept my
+patience alive and my hope up by saying, Never mind; some day Harriet's
+children will make this all right again. The old house which their kind
+grandfather was good enough to give me for my own, shall not fall to the
+ground without one effort on my part to save it. And this is how I will
+accomplish it. This house is for Harriet or Harriet's children if they
+will come here and live in it one year, but if they will not do this,
+let it go to my brother, for I shall have no more interest in it. You
+heed me, lawyer?'
+
+"I nodded and wrote on busily, thinking, perhaps, that if Harriet or
+Harriet's children did not have some money of their own to fix up this
+old place, they would scarcely care to accept their forlorn inheritance.
+Meantime the two witnesses who had lingered at the woman's whispered
+entreaty exchanged glances, and now and then a word expressive of the
+interest they were taking in this unusual affair.
+
+"'Who is to be the executor of _this_ will?' I inquired.
+
+"'You,' she cried. Then, as I started in surprise, she added: 'I know
+nobody but you. Put yourself in as executor, and oh, sir, when it is all
+in your hands, find my lost relatives, I beseech you, and bring them
+here, and take them into my mother's room at the end of the hall, and
+tell them it is all theirs, and that they must make it their room and
+fix it up and lay a new floor--you remember, a new floor--and----' Her
+words rambled off incoherently, but her eyes remained fixed and eager.
+
+"I wrote in my name as executor.
+
+"When the document was finished, I placed it before her and asked the
+young lady who had been acting as my lamp-bearer to read it aloud. This
+she did; the second will reading thus:
+
+    "The last will and testament of Cynthia Wakeham, widow of John
+    Lapham Wakeham, of Flatbush, Kings County, New York.
+
+    "First: I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses to be
+    paid.
+
+    "Second: I give, devise, and bequeath all my property to my
+    sister, Harriet Smith, if living at my death, and, if not
+    living, then to her children living at my death, in equal
+    shares, upon condition, nevertheless, that the legatee or
+    legatees who take under this will shall forthwith take up their
+    residence in the house I now occupy in Flatbush, and continue to
+    reside therein for at least one year thence next ensuing. If
+    neither my said sister nor any of her descendants be living at
+    my death, or if so living, the legatee who takes hereunder shall
+    fail to comply with the above conditions, then all of said
+    property shall go to my brother, Hiram Huckins.
+
+    "Third: I appoint Frank Etheridge, of New York City, sole
+    executor of this my last will and testament, thereby revoking
+    all other wills by me made, especially that which was executed
+    on this date at half-past ten o'clock.
+
+    "Witness my hand this fifth day of June, in the year eighteen
+    hundred and eighty-eight.
+
+    "Signed, published, and declared     }
+    by the testatrix to be her last will }
+    and testament, in our presence, who, }
+    at her request and in her presence   }
+    and in the presence of each other,   }
+    have subscribed our names hereto as  }
+    witnesses, on this 5th day of June,  }
+    1888, at five minutes to eleven P.M. }
+
+"This was satisfactory to the dying widow, and her strength kept up till
+she signed it and saw it duly attested; but when that was done, and the
+document safely stowed away in my pocket, she suddenly collapsed and
+sank back in a dying state upon her pillow.
+
+"'What are we going to do?' now cried Miss Thompson, with looks of
+great compassion at the poor woman thus bereft, at the hour of death, of
+the natural care of relatives and friends. 'We cannot leave her here
+alone. Has she no doctor--no nurse?'
+
+"'Doctors cost money,' murmured the almost speechless sufferer. And
+whether the smile which tortured her poor lips as she said these words
+was one of bitterness at the neglect she had suffered, or of
+satisfaction at the thought she had succeeded in saving this expense, I
+have never been able to decide.
+
+"As I stooped to raise her now fallen head a quick, loud sound came to
+our ears from the back of the house, as of boards being ripped up from
+the floor by a reckless and determined hand. Instantly the woman's face
+assumed a ghastly look, and, tossing up her arms, she cried:
+
+"'He has found the box!--the box! Stop him! Do not let him carry it
+away! It is----' She fell back, and I thought all was over; but in
+another instant she had raised herself almost to a sitting position, and
+was pointing straight at the clock. 'There! there! look! the clock!' And
+without a sigh or another movement she sank back on the pillow, dead."
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+FLINT AND STEEL.
+
+
+"Greatly startled, I drew back from the bed which but a moment before
+had been the scene of such mingled emotions.
+
+"'All is over here,' said I, and turned to follow the man whom with her
+latest breath she had bidden me to stop from leaving the house.
+
+"As I could not take the lamp and leave my companions in darkness, I
+stepped out into a dark hall; but before I had taken a half dozen steps
+I heard a cautious foot descending the back stairs, and realizing that
+it would be both foolish and unsafe for me to endeavor to follow him
+through the unlighted rooms and possibly intricate passages of this
+upper hall, I bounded down the front stairs, and feeling my way from
+door to door, at last emerged into a room where there was a lamp
+burning.
+
+"I had found the kitchen, and in it were Huckins and the man Briggs.
+Huckins had his hand on the latch of the outside door, and from his look
+and the bundle he carried, I judged that if I had been a minute later he
+would have been in full flight from the house.
+
+"'Put out the light!' he shouted to Briggs.
+
+"But I stepped forward, and the man did not dare obey him, and Huckins
+himself looked cowed and dropped his hand from the door-knob.
+
+"'Where are you going?' I asked, moving rapidly to his side.
+
+"'Isn't she dead?' was his only answer, given with a mixture of mockery
+and triumph difficult to describe.
+
+"'Yes,' I assented, 'she is dead; but that does not justify you in
+flying the house.'
+
+"'And who says I am flying?' he protested. 'Cannot I go out on an errand
+without being told I am running away?'
+
+"'An errand,' I repeated, 'two minutes after your sister has breathed
+her last! Don't talk to me of errands. Your appearance is that of
+flight, and that bundle in your arms looks like the cause of it.'
+
+"His eye, burning with a passion very natural under the circumstances,
+flashed over me with a look of disdain.
+
+"'And what do you know of my appearance, and what is it to you if I
+carry or do not carry a bundle out of this house? Am I not master of
+everything here?'
+
+"'No,' I cried boldly; then, thinking it might perhaps be wiser not to
+undeceive him as to his position till I had fully sounded his purposes,
+I added somewhat nonchalantly: 'that is, you are not master enough to
+take anything away that belonged to your sister. If you can prove to me
+that there is nothing in that bundle save what is yours and was yours
+before your sister died, well and good, you may go away with it and
+leave your poor dead sister to be cared for in her own house by
+strangers. But while I have the least suspicion that property of any
+nature belonging to this estate is hidden away under that roll of old
+clothes, you stop here if I have to appeal first to the strength of my
+arms and then to that of the law.'
+
+"'But,' he quavered, 'it is mine--_mine_. I am but carrying away my own.
+Did you not draw up the will yourself? Don't you know she gave
+everything to me?'
+
+"'What I know has nothing to do with it,' I retorted. 'Did you think
+because you saw a will drawn up in your favor that therefore you had
+immediate right to what she left, and could run away with her effects
+before her body was cold? A will has to be proven, my good man, before
+an heir has any right to touch what it leaves. If you do not know this,
+why did you try to slink away like a thief, instead of walking out of
+the front door like a proprietor? Your manner convicts you, man; so down
+with the bundle, or I shall have to give you in charge of the constable
+as a thief.'
+
+"'You----!' he began, but stopped. Either his fears were touched or his
+cunning awakened, for after surveying me for a moment with mingled doubt
+and hatred, he suddenly altered his manner, till it became almost
+cringing, and muttering consolingly to himself, 'After all it is only a
+delay; everything will soon be mine,' he laid the bundle on the one
+board of the broken table beside us, adding with hypocritical meekness:
+'It was only some little keepsakes of my sister, not enough to make such
+a fuss about.'
+
+"'I will see to these _keepsakes_,' said I, and was about to raise the
+bundle, when he sprang upon me.
+
+"'You----you----!' he cried. 'What right have you to touch them or to
+look at them? Because you drew up the will, does that make you an
+authority here? I don't believe it, and I won't see you put on the airs
+of it. I will go for the constable myself. I am not afraid of the law. I
+will see who is master in this house where I have lived in wretched
+slavery for years, and of which I shall be soon the owner.'
+
+"'Very well,' said I, 'let us go find the constable.'
+
+"The calmness with which I uttered this seemed at once to abash and
+infuriate him.
+
+"He alternately cringed and ruffled himself, shuffling from one foot to
+the other till I could scarcely conceal the disgust with which he
+inspired me. At last he blurted forth with forced bravado:
+
+"'Have I any rights, or haven't I any rights! You think because I don't
+know the law, that you can make a fool of me, but you can't. I may have
+lived like a dog, and I may not have a good coat to my back, but I am
+the man to whom this property has been given, as no one knows better
+than yourself; and if I chose to lift my foot and kick you out of that
+door for calling me a thief, who would blame me?--answer me that.'
+
+"'No one,' said I, with a serenity equal to his fury, 'if this property
+is indeed to be yours, and if I know it as you say.'
+
+"Struck by the suggestion implied in these words, as by a blow in the
+face for which he was wholly unprepared, he recoiled for a moment,
+looking at me with mingled doubt and amazement.
+
+"'And do you mean to deny to my face, within an hour of the fact, and
+with the very witnesses to it still in the house, what you yourself
+wrote in this paper I now flaunt in your face? If so, _you_ are the
+fool, and I the cunning one, as you will yet see, Mr. Lawyer.'
+
+"I met his look with great calmness.
+
+"'The hour you speak of contained many minutes, Mr. Huckins; and it
+takes only a few for a woman to change her mind, and to record that
+change.'
+
+"'Her mind?' The stare of terror and dismay in his eyes was contradicted
+by the laugh on his lips. 'What mind had she after I left her? She
+couldn't even speak. You cannot frighten me.'
+
+"'Mr. Huckins,' I now said, beckoning to the two witnesses whom our
+loud talking had guided to the spot where we were, 'I have thought best
+to tell you what some men might have thought it more expedient perhaps
+to conceal. Mrs. Wakeham, who evidently felt herself unduly influenced
+by you in the making of that will you hold in your hand, immediately
+upon your withdrawal testified her desire to make another, and as I had
+no interest in the case save the desire to fulfil her real wishes, I at
+once complied with her request, and formally drew up a second will more
+in consonance with her evident desires.'
+
+"'It is a lie, a lie; you are deceiving me!' shrieked the unhappy man,
+taken wholly by surprise. 'She couldn't utter a word; her tongue was
+paralyzed; how could you know her wishes?'
+
+"'Mrs. Wakeham had some of the cunning of her brother,' I observed. 'She
+knew when to play dumb and when to speak. She talked very well when
+released from the influence of your presence.'
+
+"Overwhelmed, he cast one glance at the two witnesses, who by this time
+had stepped to my side, and reading confirmation in the severity of
+their looks, he fell slowly back against the table where he stood
+leaning heavily, with his head fallen on his breast.
+
+"'Who has she given the house to?' he asked at last faintly, almost
+humbly.
+
+"'That I have no right to tell you,' I answered. 'When the will is
+offered for probate you will know; that is all the comfort I can give
+you.'
+
+"'She has left nothing to me, that much I see,' he bitterly exclaimed;
+and his head, lifted with momentary passion, fell again. 'Ten years gone
+to the dogs,' he murmured; 'ten years, and not a cent in reward! It is
+enough to make a man mad.' Suddenly he started forward in irrepressible
+passion. 'You talk about influence,' he cried, 'my influence; what
+influence did _you_ have upon her? Some, or she would never have dared
+to contradict her dying words in that way. But I'll have it out with you
+in the courts. I'll never submit to being robbed in this way.'
+
+"'You do not know that you are robbed,' said I, 'wait till you hear the
+will.'
+
+"'The will? This is her will!' he shrieked, waving before him the paper
+that he held; 'I will not believe in any other; I will not acknowledge
+any other.'
+
+"'You may have to,' now spoke up Mr. Dickey in strong and hearty tones;
+'and if I might advise you as a neighbor, I would say that the stiller
+you keep now the better it probably will be for you in the future. You
+have not earned a good enough reputation among us for disinterestedness
+to bluster in this way about your rights.'
+
+"'I don't want any talk from you,' was Huckins' quick reply, but these
+words from one who had the ears of the community in which he lived had
+nevertheless produced their effect; for his manner changed and it was
+with quite a softened air that he finally put up the paper in his pocket
+and said: 'I beg pardon if I have talked too loud and passionately. But
+the property was given to me and it shall not be taken away if any fight
+on my part can keep it. So let me see you all go, for I presume you do
+not intend to take up your abode in this house just yet.'
+
+"'No,' I retorted with some significance, 'though it might be worth our
+while. It may contain more keepsakes; I presume there are one or two
+boards yet that have not been ripped up from the floors.' Then ashamed
+of what was perhaps an unnecessary taunt, I hastened to add: 'My reason
+for telling you of the existence of a second will is that you might no
+longer make the one you hold an excuse for rifling these premises and
+abstracting their contents. Nothing here is yours--yet; and till you
+inherit, if ever you do inherit, any attempt to hide or carry away one
+article which is not manifestly your own, will be regarded by the law as
+a theft and will be punished as such. But,' I went on, seeking to still
+further mitigate language calculated to arouse any man's rage, whether
+he was a villain or not, 'you have too much sense, and doubtless too
+much honesty to carry out such intentions now you know that you have
+lost whatever rights you considered yourself to possess, so I will say
+no more about it but at once make my proposition, which is that we give
+this box into the charge of Mr. Dickey, who will stand surety for it
+till your sister can be found. If you agree to this----'
+
+"'But I won't agree,' broke in Huckins, furiously. 'Do you think I am a
+fool? The box is mine, I say, and----'
+
+"'Or perhaps,' I calmly interrupted, 'you would prefer the constable to
+come and take both it and the house in charge. This would better please
+me. Shall I send for the constable?'
+
+"'No, no,----you! Do you want to make a prison-bird of me at once?'
+
+"'I do not want to,' said I, 'but the circumstances force me to it. A
+house which has given up one treasure may give up another, and for this
+other I am accountable. Now as I cannot stay here myself to watch over
+the place, it necessarily follows that I must provide some one who can.
+And as an honest man you ought to desire this also. If you felt as I
+would under the circumstances, you would ask for the company of some
+disinterested person till our rival claims as executors had been duly
+settled and the right heir determined upon.'
+
+"'But the constable? I don't want any constable.'
+
+"'And you don't want Mr. Dickey?'
+
+"'He's better than the constable.'
+
+"'Very well; Mr. Dickey, will you stay?'
+
+"'Yes, I'll stay; that's right, isn't it, Susan?'
+
+"Miss Thompson who had been looking somewhat uneasy, brightened up as he
+spoke and answered cheerfully:
+
+"'Yes, that's right. But who will see me home?'
+
+"'Can you ask?' I inquired.
+
+"She smiled and the matter was settled.
+
+"In the hall I had the chance to whisper to Mr. Dickey:
+
+"'Keep a sharp lookout on the fellow. I do not trust him, and he may be
+up to tricks. I will notify the constable of the situation and if you
+want help throw up a window and whistle. The man may make another
+attempt to rob the premises.'
+
+"'That is so,' was the whispered reply. 'But he will have to play sharp
+to get ahead of me.'"
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+DIFFICULTIES.
+
+
+"During the short walk that ensued we talked much of the dead widow and
+her sinister brother.
+
+"'They belong to an old family,' observed Miss Thompson, 'and I have
+heard my mother tell how she has danced in their house at many a ball in
+the olden times. But ever since my day the place has borne evidences of
+decay, though it is only in the last five years it has looked as if it
+would fall to pieces. Which of them do you think was the real miser, he
+or she? Neither of them have had anything to do with their neighbors for
+ten years at least.'
+
+"'Do not you know?' I asked.
+
+"'No,' said she, 'and yet I have always lived in full view of their
+house. You see there were years in which no one lived there. Mr.
+Wakeham, who married this woman about the time father married mother,
+was a great invalid, and it was not till his death that the widow came
+back here to live. The father, who was a stern old man, I have heard
+mother tell, gave his property to her because she was the only one of
+his children who had not displeased him, but when she was a widow this
+brother came back to live with her, or on her, we have never been able
+to determine which. I think from what I have seen to-night it must have
+been on her, but she was very close too, or why did she live like a
+hermit when she could have had the friendship of the best?'
+
+"'Perhaps because her brother overruled her; he has evidently had an eye
+on this property for a long time.'
+
+"'Yes, but they have not even had the comforts. For three years at least
+no one has seen a butcher's cart stop at their door. How they have lived
+none of us know; yet there was no lack of money or their neighbors would
+have felt it their duty to look after them. Mrs. Wakeham has owned very
+valuable stocks, and as for her dividends, we know by what the
+postmaster says that they came regularly.'
+
+"'This is very interesting,' said I. 'I thought that fellow's eyes
+showed a great deal of greed for the little he was likely to inherit. Is
+there no one who is fully acquainted with their affairs, or have they
+lived so long out of the pale of society that they possess no friends?'
+
+"'I do not know of any one who has ever been honored with their
+confidence,' quoth the young lady. 'They have shown so plainly that they
+did not desire attention that gradually we have all ceased to go to
+their doors.'
+
+"'And did not sickness make any difference? Did no one go near them
+when it was learned how ill this poor woman was?'
+
+"'We did not know she was ill till this morning. We had missed her face
+at the window, but no doctor had been called, and no medicine bought, so
+we never thought her to be in any danger. When we did find it out we
+were afraid to invade premises which had been so long shut against us;
+at least I was; others did go, but they were received so coldly they did
+not remain; it is hard to stand up against the sullen displeasure of a
+man like Mr. Huckins.'
+
+"'And do you mean to say that this man and his sister have lived there
+alone and unvisited for years?'
+
+"'They wished it, Mr. Etheridge. They courted loneliness and rejected
+friendship. Only one person, Mr. H----, the minister, has persisted in
+keeping up his old habit of calling once a year, but I have heard him
+say that he always dreaded the visit, first, because they made him see
+so plainly that they resented the intrusion, and, secondly, because each
+year showed him barer floors and greater evidences of poverty or
+determined avarice. What he will say now, when he hears about the two
+wills and the brother trying to run away with his sister's savings,
+before her body was cold, I do not know. There will be some indignation
+felt in town you may be sure, and considerable excitement. I hope you
+will come back to-morrow to help me answer questions.'
+
+"'I shall come back as soon as I have been to Marston.'
+
+"'So you are going to hunt up the heirs? I pray you may be successful.'
+
+"'Do you know them? Have you ever heard anything about them?' I asked.
+
+"'Oh, no. It must be forty years since Harriet Huckins ran away from
+home. To many it will be a revelation that such a person lives.'
+
+"'And we do not even know that she does,' said I.
+
+"'True, true, she may be dead, and then that hateful brother will have
+the whole. I hope he won't. I hope she is alive and will come here and
+make amends for the disgrace which that unsightly building has put upon
+the street.'
+
+"'I hope so too,' said I, feeling my old disgust of Huckins renewed at
+this mention of him.
+
+"We were now at her gate, so bidding her good-by, I turned away through
+the midnight streets, determined to find the constable. As I went
+hurrying along in the direction of his home, Miss Thompson's question
+repeated itself in my own mind. Had Mrs. Wakeham been the sufferer and
+victim which her appearance, yes and her words to me, had betokened? Or
+was her brother sincere in his passion and true in his complaints that
+he had been subject to her whims and had led the life of a dog in order
+to please her. With the remembrance of their two faces before me, I felt
+inclined to believe her words rather than his, and yet her last cry had
+contained something in its tone beside anxiety for the rights of an
+almost unknown heir; there had been anger in it,--the anger of one whose
+secret has been surprised and who feels himself personally robbed of
+something dearer than life.
+
+"However, at this time I could not stop to weigh these possibilities or
+decide this question. Whatever was true as regarded the balance of right
+between these two, there was no doubt as to the fact that this man was
+not to be trusted under temptation. I therefore made what haste I could,
+and being fortunate enough to find the constable still up, succeeded in
+interesting him in the matter and obtaining his promise to have the
+house put under proper surveillance. This done, I took the car for
+Fulton Ferry, and was so fortunate as to reach home at or near two
+o'clock in the morning. This was last night, and to-day you see me here.
+You disappoint me by saying that you know no one by the name of Harriet
+Smith."
+
+"Yet," exclaimed Edgar, rousing himself from his attitude of listening,
+"I know all the old inhabitants. Harriet Smith," he continued in a
+musing tone, "Harriet--What is there in the name that stirs up some
+faint recollection? Did I once know a person by that name after all?"
+
+"Nothing more likely."
+
+"But there the thing stops. I cannot get any farther," mused Edgar. "The
+name is not entirely new to me. I have some vague memory in connection
+with it, but what memory I cannot tell. Let me see if Jerry can help
+us." And going to the door, he called "Jerry! Jerry!"
+
+The response came slowly; heavy bodies do not soon overcome their
+inertia. But after the lapse of a few minutes a shuffling footstep was
+heard. Then the sound of heavy breathing, something between a snore and
+a snort, and the huge form of the good-natured driver came slowly into
+view, till it paused and stood in the door opening, which it very nearly
+filled.
+
+"Did you call, sirs?" asked he, with a rude attempt at a bow.
+
+"Yes," responded Edgar, "I wanted to know if you remembered a woman by
+the name of Harriet Smith once living about here."
+
+"Har-ri-et Smith," was the long-drawn-out reply; "Har-ri-et Smith! I
+knows lots of Harriets, and as for Smiths, they be as plenty as
+squirrels in nut time; but Har-ri-et Smith--I wouldn't like to say I
+didn't, and I wouldn't like to say I did."
+
+"She is an old woman now, if she is still living," suggested Frank. "Or
+she may have moved away."
+
+"Yes, sir, yes, of course"; and they perceived another slow Harriet
+begin to form itself upon his lips.
+
+Seeing that he knew nothing of the person mentioned, Edgar motioned him
+away, but Frank, with a lawyer's belief in using all means at his
+command, stopped him as he was heavily turning his back and said:
+
+"I have good news for a woman by that name. If you can find her, and she
+turns out to be a sister of Cynthia Wakeham, of Flatbush, New York,
+there will be something good for you too. Do you want to try for it?"
+
+"Do I?" and the grin which appeared on Jerry's face seemed to light up
+the room. "I'm not quick," he hastily acknowledged, as if in fear that
+Frank would observe this fault and make use of it against him; "that is,
+I'm not spry on my feet, but that leaves me all the more time for
+gossip, and gossip is what'll do _this_ business, isn't it, Dr.
+Sellick?" Edgar nodding, Jerry laughed, and Frank, seeing he had got an
+interested assistant at last, gave him such instructions as he thought
+he needed, and dismissed him to his work.
+
+When he was gone, the friends looked for an instant at each other, and
+then Frank rose.
+
+"I am going out," said he. "If you have friends to see or business to
+look after, don't think you must come with me. I always take a walk
+before retiring."
+
+"Very well," replied Edgar, with unusual cheeriness. "Then if you will
+excuse me I'll not accompany you. Going to walk for pleasure? You'd
+better take the road north; the walk in that direction is the best in
+town."
+
+"All right," returned Frank; "I'll not be gone more than an hour. See
+you again in the morning if not to-night." And with a careless nod he
+disappeared, leaving Edgar sitting alone in the room.
+
+On the walk in front of the house he paused.
+
+"To the north," he repeated, looking up and down the street, with a
+curious shake of the head; "good advice, no doubt, and one that I will
+follow some time, but not to-night. The attractions in an opposite
+direction are too great." And with an odd smile, which was at once full
+of manly confidence and dreamy anticipation, he turned his face
+southward and strode away through the warm and perfumed darkness of the
+summer night.
+
+He took the road by which he had come from the depot, and passing
+rapidly by the few shops that clustered about the hotel, entered at once
+upon the street whose picturesque appearance had attracted his attention
+earlier in the evening.
+
+What is he seeking? Exercise--the exhilaration of motion--the
+refreshment of change? If so, why does he look behind and before him
+with an almost guilty air as he advances towards a dimly lighted house,
+guarded by the dense branches of a double row of poplars? Is it here the
+attraction lies which has drawn him from the hotel and the companionship
+of his friend? Yes, for he stops as he reaches it and gazes first along
+the dim shadowy vista made by those clustered trunks and upright boughs,
+and then up the side and across the front of the silent house itself,
+while an expression of strange wistfulness softens the eager brightness
+of his face, and his smile becomes one of mingled pride and tenderness,
+for which the peaceful scene, with all its picturesque features, can
+scarcely account.
+
+Can it be that his imagination has been roused and his affections
+stirred by the instantaneous vision of an almost unknown woman? that
+this swelling of the heart and this sudden turning of his whole nature
+towards what is sweetest, holiest, and most endearing in life means that
+his hitherto free spirit has met its mate, and that here in the lonely
+darkness, before a strange portal and in the midst of new and untried
+scenes, he has found the fate that comes once to every man, making him a
+changed being for ever after?
+
+The month is June and the air is full of the scent of roses. He can see
+their fairy forms shining from amid the vines clambering over the walls
+and porches before him. They suggest all that is richest and spiciest
+and most exquisite in nature, as does her face as he remembered it. What
+if a thorn has rent a petal here and there, in the luxurious flowers
+before him, are they not roses still? So to him her face is all the
+lovelier for the blemish which might speak to others of imperfection,
+but which to him is only a call for profounder tenderness and more
+ardent devotion. And if in her nature there lies a fault also, is not a
+man's first love potent enough to overlook even that? He begins to think
+so, and allows his glances to roam from window to window of the nearly
+darkened house, as if half expecting her sweet and melancholy head to
+look forth in quest of the stars--or him.
+
+The living rooms are mainly on the side that overlooks the garden, and
+scarcely understanding by what impulse he is swayed, he passes around
+the wall to a second gate, which he perceives opening at right angles to
+the poplar walk. Here he pauses a moment, looking up at the window which
+for some reason he has determined to be hers, and while he stands there,
+the moonlight shows the figure of another man coming from the highway
+and making towards the self-same spot. But before this second person
+reaches Frank he pauses, falters, and finally withdraws. Who is it? The
+shadow is on his face and we cannot see, but one thing is apparent,
+Frank Etheridge is not the only man who worships at this especial shrine
+to-night.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+YOUNG MEN'S FANCIES.
+
+
+The next morning at about nine o'clock Frank burst impetuously into
+Edgar's presence. They had not met for a good-night the evening before
+and they had taken breakfast separately.
+
+"Edgar, what is this I hear about Hermione Cavanagh? Is it true she
+lives alone in that house with her sister, and that they neither of them
+ever go out, not even for a half-hour's stroll in the streets?"
+
+Edgar, flushed at the other's excitement, turned and busied himself a
+moment with his books and papers before replying.
+
+"Frank, you have been among the gossips."
+
+"And what if I have! You would tell me nothing, and I knew there was a
+tragedy in her face; I saw it at the first glance."
+
+"Is it a tragedy, this not going out?"
+
+"It is the result of a tragedy; must be. They say nothing and nobody
+could draw from her beyond the boundary of that brick wall we rode by so
+carelessly. And she so young, so beautiful!"
+
+"Frank, you exaggerate," was all the answer he received.
+
+Frank bit his lip; the phrase he had used had been a trifle strong for
+the occasion. But in another moment he was ready to continue the
+conversation.
+
+"Perhaps I do speak of an experiment that has never been tried; but you
+know what I mean. She has received some shock which has terrified her
+and made her afraid of the streets, and no one can subdue this fear or
+induce her to step through her own gate. Is not that sad and interesting
+enough to move a man who recognizes her beauty?"
+
+"It is certainly very sad," quoth the other, "if it is quite true, which
+I doubt."
+
+"Go talk to your neighbors then; they have not been absent like yourself
+for a good long year."
+
+"I am not interested enough," the other began.
+
+"But you ought to be," interpolated Frank. "As a physician you ought to
+recognize the peculiarities of such a prejudice. Why, if I had such a
+case----"
+
+"But the case is not mine. I am not and never have been Miss Cavanagh's
+physician."
+
+"Well, well, her friend then."
+
+"Who told you I was her friend?"
+
+"I don't remember; I understood from some one that you used to visit
+her."
+
+"My neighbors, as you call them, have good memories."
+
+"_Did_ you use to visit her?"
+
+"Frank, Frank, subdue your curiosity. If I did, I do not now. The old
+gentleman is dead, and it was he upon whom I was accustomed to call when
+I went to their house."
+
+"The old gentleman?"
+
+"Miss Cavanagh's father."
+
+"And you called upon him?"
+
+"Sometimes."
+
+"Edgar, how short you are."
+
+"Frank, how impatient you are."
+
+"But I have reason."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"I want to hear about her, and you mock me with the most evasive
+replies."
+
+Edgar turned towards his friend; the flush had departed from his
+features, but his manner certainly was not natural. Yet he did not look
+unkindly at the ardent young lawyer. On the contrary, there was a gleam
+of compassion in his eye, as he remarked, with more emphasis than he had
+before used:
+
+"I am sorry if I seem to be evading any question you choose to put. But
+the truth is you seem to know more about the young lady than I do
+myself. I did not know that she was the victim of any such caprice."
+
+"Yet it has lasted a year."
+
+"A year?"
+
+"Just the time you have been away."
+
+"Just----" Edgar paused in the repetition. Evidently his attention had
+been caught at last. But he soon recovered himself. "A strange
+coincidence," he laughed. "Happily it is nothing more."
+
+Frank surveyed his friend very seriously.
+
+"I shall believe you," said he.
+
+"You may," was the candid rejoinder. And the young physician did not
+flinch, though Etheridge continued to look at him steadily and with
+undoubted intention. "And now what luck with Jerry?" he suddenly
+inquired, with a cheerful change of tone.
+
+"None; I shall leave town at ten."
+
+"Is there no Harriet Smith here?"
+
+"Not if I can believe him."
+
+"And has been none in the last twenty years?"
+
+"Not that he can find out."
+
+"Then your quest here is at an end?"
+
+"No, it has taken another turn, that is all."
+
+"You mean----"
+
+"That I shall come back here to-morrow. I must be sure that what Jerry
+says is true. Besides---- But why mince the matter? I--I have become
+interested in that girl, Edgar, and want to know her--hear her speak.
+Cannot you help me to make her acquaintance? If you used to go to the
+house---- Why do you frown? Do you not like Miss Cavanagh? "
+
+Edgar hastily smoothed his forehead.
+
+"Frank, I have never thought very much about her. She was young when I
+visited her father, and then that scar----"
+
+"Never mind," cried Frank. He felt as if a wound in his own breast had
+been touched.
+
+Edgar was astonished. He was not accustomed to display his own feelings,
+and did not know what to make of a man who did. But he did not finish
+his sentence.
+
+"If she does not go out," he observed instead, "she may be equally
+unwilling to receive visitors."
+
+"Oh, no," the other eagerly broke in; "people visit there just the same.
+Only they say she never likes to hear anything about her peculiarity.
+She wishes it accepted without words."
+
+It was now Edgar's turn to ask a question.
+
+"You say she lives there alone? You mean with servants, doubtless?"
+
+"Oh, yes, she has a servant. But I did not say she lived there alone; I
+said she and her sister."
+
+Edgar was silent.
+
+"Her sister does not go out, either, they say."
+
+"No? What does it all mean?"
+
+"That is what _I_ want to know."
+
+"Not go out? Emma!"
+
+"Do you remember _Emma_?"
+
+"Yes, she is younger than Hermione."
+
+"And what kind of a girl is _she_?"
+
+"Don't ask me, Frank. I have no talent for describing beautiful women."
+
+"She is beautiful, then?"
+
+"If her sister is, yes."
+
+"You mean _she_ has no scar." It was softly said, almost reverently.
+
+"No, she has no scar."
+
+Frank shook his head.
+
+"The scar appeals to me, Edgar."
+
+Edgar smiled, but it was not naturally. The constraint in his manner had
+increased rather than diminished, and he seemed anxious to start upon
+the round of calls he had purposed to make.
+
+"You must excuse me," said he, "I shall have to be off. You are coming
+back to-morrow?"
+
+"If business does not detain me."
+
+"You will find me in my new office by that time. I have rented the small
+brown house you must have noticed on the main street. Come there, and if
+you do not mind bachelor housekeeping, stay with me while you remain in
+town. I shall have a good cook, you may be sure, and as for a room, the
+north chamber has already been set apart for you."
+
+Frank's face softened and he grasped the doctor's hand.
+
+"That's good of you; it looks as if you expected me to need it."
+
+"Have you not a Harriet Smith to find?"
+
+Frank shrugged his shoulders. "I see that you understand lawyers."
+
+Frank rode down to the depot with Jerry. As he passed Miss Cavanagh's
+house he was startled to perceive a youthful figure bending over the
+flower-beds on the inner side of the wall. "She is not so pretty by
+daylight," was his first thought. But at that moment she raised her
+head, and with a warm thrill he recognized the fact that it was not
+Hermione, but the sister he was looking at.
+
+It gave him something to think of, for this sister was not without her
+attractions, though they were less brilliant and also less marred than
+those of the sad and stately Hermione.
+
+When he arrived at his office his first inquiry was if anything had been
+heard from Flatbush, and upon being told to the contrary he immediately
+started for that place. He found the house a scene of some tumult.
+Notwithstanding the fact that the poor woman still lay unburied, the
+parlors and lower hall were filled with people, who stared at the walls
+and rapped with wary but eager knuckles on the various lintels and
+casements. Whispers of a treasure having been found beneath the boards
+of the flooring had reached the ear of the public, and the greatest
+curiosity had been raised in the breasts of those who up to this day had
+looked upon the house as a worm-eaten structure fit only for the shelter
+of dogs.
+
+Mr. Dickey was in a room above, and to him Frank immediately hastened.
+
+"Well," said he, "what news?"
+
+"Ah," cried the jovial witness, coming forward, "glad to see you. Have
+you found the heirs?"
+
+"Not yet," rejoined Frank. "Have you had any trouble? I thought I saw a
+police-officer below."
+
+"Yes, we had to have some one with authority here. Even Huckins agreed
+to that; he is afraid the house will be run away with, I think. Did you
+see what a crowd has assembled in the parlors? We let them in so that
+Huckins won't seem to be the sole object of suspicion; but he really is,
+you know. He gave me plenty to do that night."
+
+"He did, did he?"
+
+"Yes; you had scarcely gone before he began his tactics. First he led
+me very politely to a room where there was a bed; then he brought me a
+bottle of the vilest rum you ever drank; and then he sat down to be
+affable. While he talked I was at ease, but when he finally got up and
+said he would try to get a snatch of sleep I grew suspicious, and
+stopped drinking the rum and set myself to listening. He went directly
+to a room not far from me and shut himself in. He had no light, but in a
+few minutes I heard him strike a match, and then another and another.
+'He is searching under the boards for more treasure,' thought I, and
+creeping into the next room I was fortunate enough to come upon a closet
+so old and with such big cracks in its partition that I was enabled to
+look through them into the place where he was. The sight that met my eye
+was startling. He was, as I conjectured, peering under the boards, which
+he had ripped up early in the evening; and as he had only the light of a
+match to aid him, I would catch quick glimpses of his eager, peering
+face and then lose the sight of it in sudden darkness till the gleam of
+another match came to show it up again. He crouched upon the floor and
+crept along the whole length of the board, thrusting in his arm to right
+and left, while the sweat oozed on his forehead and fell in large drops
+into the long, narrow hollow beneath him. At last he seemed to grow wild
+with repeated disappointments, and, starting up, stood looking about him
+at the four surrounding walls, as if demanding them to give up their
+secrets. Then the match went out, and I heard him stamp his foot with
+rage before proceeding to put back the boards and shift them into place.
+Then there came silence, during which I crept on tiptoe to the place I
+had left, judging that he would soon leave his room and return to see if
+I had been watching him.
+
+"The box was on the bed, and throwing myself beside it, I grasped it
+with one arm and hid my face with the other, and as I lay there I soon
+became conscious of his presence, and I knew he was looking from me to
+the box, and weighing the question as to whether I was sleeping sound
+enough for him to risk a blow. But I did not stir, though I almost
+expected a sudden crash on my head, and in another moment he crept away,
+awed possibly by my superior strength, for I am a much bigger man than
+he, as you must see. When I thought him gone I dropped my arm and looked
+up. The room was in total darkness. Bounding to my feet I followed him
+through the halls and came upon him in the room of death. He had the
+lamp in his hand, and he was standing over his sister with an awful look
+on his face.
+
+"'Where have you hidden it?' he hissed to the senseless form before him.
+'That box is not all you had. Where are the bonds and the stocks, and
+the money I helped you to save?'
+
+"He was so absorbed he did not see me. He stooped by the bed and ran his
+hand along under the mattresses; then he lifted the pillows and looked
+under the bed. Then he rose and trod gingerly over the floor, as if to
+see if any of the boards were loose, and peered into the empty closet,
+and felt with wary hand up and down the mantel sides. At last his eyes
+fell on the clock, and he was about to lift his hand to it when I said:
+
+"'The clock is all right; you needn't set it; see, it just agrees with
+my watch!'
+
+"What a face he turned to me! I tell you it is no fun to meet such eyes
+in an empty house at one o'clock at night; and if you hadn't told me the
+police would be within call I should have been sick enough of my job, I
+can tell you. As it was, I drew back a foot or two and hugged the box a
+little more tightly, while he, with a coward's bravado, stepped after me
+and whispered below his breath:
+
+"'You are making yourself too much at home here. If I want to stop the
+clock, now that my sister is dead, what is that to you? You have no
+respect for a house in mourning, and I am free to tell you so.'
+
+"To this tirade I naturally made no answer, and he turned again to the
+clock. But just as I was asking myself whether I should stop him or let
+him go on with his peerings and pokings, the bell rang loudly below. It
+was a welcome interruption to me, but it made him very angry. However,
+he went down and welcomed, as decently as he knew how, a woman who had
+been sent to his assistance by Miss Thompson, evidently thinking that it
+was time he made some effort to regain my good opinion by avoiding all
+further cause for suspicion.
+
+"At all events, he gave me no more trouble that night, nor since, though
+the way he haunts the door of that room and the looks he casts inside at
+the clock are enough to make one's blood run cold. Do you think there
+are any papers hidden there?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it," returned Frank. "Do you remember that the old
+woman's last words were, 'The clock! the clock!' As soon as I can appeal
+to the Surrogate I shall have that piece of furniture examined."
+
+"I shall be mortally interested in knowing what you find there,"
+commented Mr. Dickey. "If the property comes to much, won't Miss
+Thompson and I get something out of it for our trouble?"
+
+"No doubt," said Frank.
+
+"Then we will get married," said he, and looked so beaming, that Frank
+shook him cordially by the hand.
+
+"But where is Huckins?" the lawyer now inquired. "I didn't see him down
+below."
+
+"He is chewing his nails in the kitchen. He is like a dog with a bone;
+you cannot get him to leave the house for a moment."
+
+"I must see him," said Frank, and went down the back stairs to the place
+where he had held his previous interview with this angry and
+disappointed man.
+
+At first sight of the young lawyer Huckins flushed deeply, but he soon
+grew pale and obsequious, as if he had held bitter communing with
+himself through the last thirty-six hours, and had resolved to restrain
+his temper for the future in the presence of the man who understood him.
+But he could not help a covert sneer from creeping into his voice.
+
+"Have you found the heirs?" he asked, bowing with ill-mannered grace,
+and pushing forward the only chair there was in the room.
+
+"I shall find them when I need them," rejoined Frank. "Fortunes, however
+small, do not usually go begging."
+
+"Then you have not found them?" the other declared, a hard glitter of
+triumph shining in his sinister eye.
+
+"I have not brought them with me," acknowledged the lawyer, warily.
+
+"Perhaps, then, you won't," suggested Huckins, while he seemed to grow
+instantly at least two inches in stature. "If they are not in Marston
+where are they? Dead! And that leaves me the undisputed heir to all my
+sister's savings."
+
+"I do not believe them dead," protested Frank.
+
+"Why?" Huckins half smiled, half snarled.
+
+"Some token of the fact would have come to you. You are not in a strange
+land or in unknown parts; you are living in the old homestead where this
+lost sister of yours was reared. You would have heard if she had died,
+at least so it strikes an unprejudiced mind."
+
+"Then let it strike yours to the contrary," snapped out his angry
+companion. "When she went away it was in anger and with the curse of her
+father ringing in her ears. Do you see that porch?" And Huckins pointed
+through the cracked windows to a decayed pair of steps leading from the
+side of the house. "It was there she ran down on her way out. I see her
+now, though forty years have passed, and I, a little fellow of six,
+neither understood nor appreciated what was happening. My father stood
+in the window above, and he cried out: 'Don't come back! You have chosen
+your way, now go in it. Let me never see you nor hear from you again.'
+And we never did, never! And now you tell me we would have heard if she
+had died. You don't know the heart of folks if you say that. Harriet cut
+herself adrift that day, and she knew it."
+
+"Yet you were acquainted with the fact that she went to Marston."
+
+The indignant light in the brother's eye settled into a look of cunning.
+
+"Oh," he acknowledged carelessly, "we heard so at the time, when
+everything was fresh. But we heard nothing more, nothing."
+
+"Nothing?" Frank repeated. "Not that she had married and had had
+children?"
+
+"No," was the dogged reply. "My sister up there," and Huckins jerked his
+hand towards the room where poor Mrs. Wakeham lay, "surmised things, but
+she didn't know anything for certain. If she had she might have sent for
+these folks long ago. She had time enough in the last ten years we have
+been living in this hole together."
+
+"But," Etheridge now ventured, determined not to be outmatched in
+cunning, "you say she was penurious, too penurious to live comfortably
+or to let you do so."
+
+Huckins shrugged his shoulders and for a moment looked balked; then he
+cried: "The closest women have their whims. If she had known any such
+folks to have been living as you have named, she would have sent for
+them."
+
+"If you had let her," suggested Frank.
+
+Huckins turned upon him and his eye flashed. But he very soon cringed
+again and attempted a sickly smile, which completed the disgust the
+young lawyer felt for him.
+
+"If I had let her," he repeated; "I, who pined for companionship or
+anything which would have put a good meal into my mouth! You do not know
+me, sir; you are prejudiced against me because I want my earnings, and a
+little comfort in my old age."
+
+"If I am prejudiced against you, it is yourself who has made me so,"
+returned the other. "Your conduct has not been of a nature to win my
+regard, since I have had the honor of your acquaintance."
+
+"And what has yours been, worming, as you have, into my sister's
+confidence----"
+
+But here Frank hushed him. "We will drop this," said he. "You know me,
+and I think I know you. I came to give you one last chance to play the
+man by helping me to find your relatives. I see you have no intention of
+doing so, so I will now proceed to find them without you."
+
+"If they exist," he put in.
+
+"Certainly, if they exist. If they do not----"
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I must have proofs to that effect. I must know that your sister left no
+heirs but yourself."
+
+"That will take time," he grumbled. "I shall be kept weeks out of my
+rights."
+
+"The Surrogate will see that you do not suffer."
+
+He shuddered and looked like a fox driven into his hole.
+
+"It is shameful, shameful!" he cried. "It is nothing but a conspiracy
+to rob me of my own. I suppose I shall not be allowed to live in my own
+house." And his eyes wandered greedily over the rafters above him.
+
+"Are you sure that it is yours?"
+
+"Yes, yes, damn you!" But the word had been hasty, and he immediately
+caught Frank's sleeve and cringed in contrition. "I beg your pardon," he
+cried, "perhaps we had better not talk any longer, for I have been too
+tried for patience. They will not even leave me alone in my grief," he
+whined, pointing towards the rooms full, as I have said, of jostling
+neighbors and gossips.
+
+"It will be quiet enough after the funeral," Frank assured him.
+
+"Oh! oh! the funeral!" he groaned.
+
+"Is it going to be too extravagant?" Frank insinuated artfully.
+
+Huckins gave the lawyer a look, dropped his eyes and mournfully shook
+his head.
+
+"The poor woman would not have liked it," he muttered; "but one must be
+decent towards one's own blood."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+THE WAY OPENS.
+
+
+Frank succeeded in having Mr. Dickey appointed as Custodian of the
+property, then he went back to Marston.
+
+"Good-evening, Doctor; what a nest of roses you have here for a
+bachelor," was his jovial cry, as he entered the quaint little house, in
+which Sellick had now established himself. "I declare, when you told me
+I should always find a room here, I did not realize what a temptation
+you were offering me. And in sight----" He paused, changing color as he
+drew back from the window to which he had stepped,----"of the hills," he
+somewhat awkwardly added.
+
+Edgar, who had watched the movements of his friend from under half
+lowered lids, smiled dryly.
+
+"_Of the hills_," he repeated. Then with a short laugh, added, "I knew
+that you liked that especial view."
+
+Frank's eye, which was still on a certain distant chimney, lighted up
+wonderfully as he turned genially towards his friend.
+
+"I did not know you were such a good fellow," he laughed. "I hope you
+have found yourself made welcome here."
+
+"Oh, yes, welcome enough."
+
+"Any patients yet?"
+
+"All of Dudgeon's, I fear. I have been doing little else but warning one
+man after another: 'Now, no words against any former practitioner. If
+you want help from me, tell me your symptoms, but don't talk about any
+other doctor's mistakes, for I have not time to hear it.'"
+
+"Poor old Dudgeon!" cried Frank. Then, shortly: "I'm a poor one to hide
+my impatience. Have you seen either of _them_ yet?"
+
+"Either--of--them?"
+
+"The girls, the two sweet whimsical girls. You know whom I mean, Edgar."
+
+"You only spoke of one when you were here before, Frank."
+
+"And I only think of one. But I saw the other on my way to the depot,
+and that made me speak of the two. Have you seen them?"
+
+"No," answered the other, with unnecessary dryness; "I think you told me
+they did not go out."
+
+"But you have feet, man, and you can go to them, and I trusted that you
+would, if only to prepare the way for me; for I mean to visit them, as
+you have every reason to believe, and I should have liked an
+introducer."
+
+"Frank," asked the other, quietly, but with a certain marked
+earnestness, "has it gone as deep as that? Are you really serious in
+your intention of making the acquaintance of Miss Cavanagh?"
+
+"Serious? Have you for a minute thought me otherwise?"
+
+"You are not serious in most things."
+
+"In business I am, and in----"
+
+"Love?" the other smiled.
+
+"Yes, if you can call it love, yet."
+
+"We will not call it anything," said the other. "You want to see her,
+that is all. I wonder at your decision, but can say nothing against it.
+Happily, you have seen her defect."
+
+"It is not a defect to me."
+
+"Not if it is in her nature as well?"
+
+"Her nature?"
+
+"A woman who for any reason cuts herself off from her species, as she is
+said to do, cannot be without her faults. Such idiosyncrasies do not
+grow out of the charity we are bid to have for our fellow-creatures."
+
+"But she may have suffered. I can readily believe she has suffered from
+that same want of charity in others. There is nothing like a personal
+defect to make one sensitive. Think of the averted looks she must have
+met from many thoughtless persons; and she almost a beauty!"
+
+"Yes, that _almost_ is tragic."
+
+"It can excuse much."
+
+Edgar shook his head. "Think what you are doing, Frank, that's all. _I_
+should hesitate in making the acquaintance of one who for _any_ reason
+has shut herself away from the world."
+
+"Is not her whim shared by her sister?"
+
+"They say so."
+
+"Then there are two whose acquaintance you would hesitate to make?"
+
+"Certainly, if I had any ulterior purpose beyond that of mere
+acquaintanceship."
+
+"Her sister has no scar?"
+
+Edgar, weary, perhaps, of the conversation, did not answer.
+
+"Why should she shut herself up?" mused Frank, too interested in the
+subject to note the other's silence.
+
+"Women are mysteries," quoth Edgar, shortly.
+
+"But this is more than a mystery," cried Frank. "Whim will not account
+for it. There must be something in the history of these two girls which
+the world does not know."
+
+"That is not the fault of the world," retorted Edgar, in his usual vein
+of sarcasm.
+
+But Frank was reckless. "The world is right to be interested," he
+avowed. "It would take a very cold heart not to be moved with curiosity
+by such a fact as two girls secluding themselves in their own house,
+without any manifest reason. Are _you_ not moved by it, Edgar? Are you,
+indeed, as indifferent as you seem?"
+
+"I should like to know why they do this, of course, but I shall not busy
+myself to find out. I have much else to do."
+
+"Well, I have not. It is the one thing in life for me; so look out for
+some great piece of audacity on my part, for speak to her I will, and
+that, too, before I leave the town."
+
+"I do not see how you will manage that, Frank."
+
+"You forget I am a lawyer."
+
+Yet for all the assurance manifested by this speech, it was some time
+before Frank could see his way clearly to what he desired. A dozen plans
+were made and dismissed as futile before he finally determined to seek
+the assistance of a fellow-lawyer whose name he had seen in the window
+of the one brick building in the principal street. "Through him,"
+thought he, "I may light upon some business which will enable me to
+request with propriety an interview with Miss Cavanagh." Yet his heart
+failed him as he went up the steps of Mr. Hamilton's office, and if that
+gentleman, upon presenting himself, had been a young man, Frank would
+certainly have made some excuse for his intrusion, and retired. But he
+was old and white-haired and benignant, and so Frank was lured into
+introducing himself as a young lawyer from New York, engaged in finding
+the whereabouts of one Harriet Smith, a former resident of Marston.
+
+Mr. Hamilton, who could not fail to be impressed by Etheridge's sterling
+appearance, met him with cordiality.
+
+"I have heard of you," said he, "but I fear your errand here is bound
+to be fruitless. No Harriet Smith, so far as I know, ever came to reside
+in this town. And I was born and bred in this street. Have you actual
+knowledge that one by that name ever lived here, and can you give me the
+date?"
+
+The answers Frank made were profuse but hurried; he had not expected to
+gain news of Harriet Smith; he had only used the topic as a means of
+introducing conversation. But when he came to the point in which he was
+more nearly interested, he found his courage fail him. He could not
+speak the name of Miss Cavanagh, even in the most casual fashion, and so
+the interview ended without any further result than the making on his
+part of a pleasant acquaintance. Subdued by his failure, Frank quitted
+the office, and walked slowly down the street. If he had not boasted of
+his intentions to Edgar, he would have left the town without further
+effort; but now his pride was involved, and he made that an excuse to
+his love. Should he proceed boldly to her house, use the knocker, and
+ask to see Miss Cavanagh? Yes, he might do that, but afterwards? With
+what words should he greet her, or win that confidence which the
+situation so peculiarly demanded? He was not an acknowledged friend, or
+the friend of an acknowledged friend, unless Edgar---- But no, Edgar was
+not their friend; it would be folly to speak his name to them. What
+then? Must he give up his hopes till time had paved the way to their
+realization? He feared it must be so, yet he recoiled from the delay. In
+this mood he re-entered Edgar's office.
+
+A woman in hat and cloak met him.
+
+"Are you the stranger lawyer that has come to town?" she asked.
+
+He bowed, wondering if he was about to hear news of Harriet Smith.
+
+"Then this note is for you," she declared, handing him a little
+three-cornered billet.
+
+His heart gave a great leap, and he turned towards the window as he
+opened the note. Who could be writing letters to him of such dainty
+appearance as this? Not she, of course, and yet---- He tore open the
+sheet, and read these words:
+
+    "If not asking too great a favor, may I request that you will
+    call at my house, in your capacity of lawyer.
+
+    "As I do not leave my own home, you will pardon this informal
+    method of requesting your services. The lawyer here cannot do my
+    work.
+
+        "Yours respectfully,
+            "HERMIONE CAVANAGH."
+
+He was too much struck with amazement and delight to answer the
+messenger at once. When he did so, his voice was very business-like.
+
+"Will Miss Cavanagh be at liberty this morning?" he asked. "I shall be
+obliged to return to the city after dinner."
+
+"She told me to say that any time would be convenient to her," was the
+answer.
+
+"Then say to her that I will be at her door in half an hour."
+
+The woman nodded, and turned.
+
+"She lives on the road to the depot, where the two rows of poplars are,"
+she suddenly declared, as she paused at the door.
+
+"I know," he began, and blushed, for the woman had given him a quick
+glance of surprise. "I noticed the poplars," he explained.
+
+She smiled as she passed out, and that made him crimson still more.
+
+"Do I wear my heart on my sleeve?" he murmured to himself, in secret
+vexation. "If so, I must wrap it about with a decent cloak of reserve
+before I go into the presence of one who has such power to move it." And
+he was glad Edgar was not at home to mark his excitement.
+
+The half hour wore away, and he stood on the rose-embowered porch. Would
+she come to the door herself, or would it be the sad-eyed sister he
+should see first? It mattered little. It was Hermione who had sent for
+him, and it was with Hermione he should talk. Was it his heart that was
+beating so loudly? He had scarcely answered the question, when the door
+opened, and the woman who had served as a messenger from Miss Cavanagh
+stood before him.
+
+"Ah!" said she, "come in." And in another moment he was in the enchanted
+house.
+
+A door stood open at his left, and into the room thus disclosed he was
+ceremoniously ushered.
+
+"Miss Cavanagh will be down in a moment," said the woman, as she slowly
+walked away, with more than one lingering backward look.
+
+He did not note this look, for his eyes were on the quaint old furniture
+and shadowy recesses of the staid best room, in which he stood an uneasy
+guest. For somehow he had imagined he would see the woman of his dreams
+in a place of cheer and sunshine; at a window, perhaps, where the roses
+looked in, or at least in a spot enlivened by some evidences of womanly
+handiwork and taste. But here all was stiff as at a funeral. The high
+black mantel-shelf was without clock or vase, and the only attempt at
+ornament to be seen within the four grim walls was an uncouth wreath,
+made of shells, on a background of dismal black, which hung between the
+windows. It was enough to rob any moment of its romance. And yet, if she
+should look fair here, what might he not expect of her beauty in more
+harmonious surroundings.
+
+As he was adjusting his ideas to this thought, there came the sound of
+a step on the stair, and the next moment Hermione Cavanagh entered his
+presence.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+A SEARCH AND ITS RESULTS.
+
+
+Hermione Cavanagh, without the scar, would have been one of the
+handsomest of women. She was of the grand type, with height and a
+nobility of presence to which the extreme loveliness of her perfect
+features lent a harmonizing grace. Of a dazzling complexion, the hair
+which lay above her straight fine brows shone ebon-like in its lustre,
+while her eyes, strangely and softly blue, filled the gazer at first
+with surprise and then with delight as the varying emotions of her quick
+mind deepened them into a more perfect consonance with her hair, or
+softened them into something like the dewy freshness of heaven-born
+flowers. Her mouth was mobile, but the passions it expressed were not of
+the gentlest, whatever might be the language of her eyes, and so it was
+that her face was in a way a contradiction of itself, which made it a
+fascinating study to one who cared to watch it, or possessed sufficient
+understanding to read its subtle language. She was oddly dressed in a
+black, straight garment, eminently in keeping with the room; but there
+was taste displayed in the arrangement of her hair, and nothing could
+make her face anything but a revelation of beauty, unless it was the
+scar, and that Frank Etheridge did not see.
+
+"Are you--" she began and paused, looking at him with such surprise that
+he felt his cheeks flush--"the lawyer who was in town a few days ago on
+some pressing inquiry?"
+
+"I am," returned Frank, making her the low bow her embarrassment seemed
+to demand.
+
+"Then you must excuse me," said she; "I thought you were an elderly man,
+like our own Mr. Hamilton. I should not have sent for you if----"
+
+"If you had known I had no more experience," he suggested, with a smile,
+seeing her pause in some embarrassment.
+
+She bowed; yet he knew that was not the way she would have ended the
+sentence if she had spoken her thought.
+
+"Then I am to understand," said he, with a gentleness born of his great
+wish to be of service to her, "that you would prefer that I should send
+you an older adviser. I can do it, Miss Cavanagh."
+
+"Thank you," she said, and stood hesitating, the slight flush on her
+cheek showing that she was engaged in some secret struggle. "I will tell
+you my difficulty," she pursued at last, raising her eyes with a frank
+look to his face. "Will you be seated?"
+
+Charmed with the graciousness of her manner when once relieved from
+embarrassment, he waited for her to sit and then took a chair himself.
+
+"It is a wearisome affair," she declared, "but one which a New York
+lawyer can solve without much trouble." And with the clearness of a
+highly cultivated mind, she gave him the facts of a case in which she
+and her sister had become involved through the negligence of her man of
+business.
+
+"Can you help me?" she asked.
+
+"Very easily," he replied. "You have but to go to New York and swear to
+these facts before a magistrate, and the matter will be settled without
+difficulty."
+
+"But I cannot go to New York."
+
+"No? Not on a matter of this importance?"
+
+"On no matter. I do not travel, Mr. Etheridge."
+
+The pride and finality with which this was uttered, gave him his first
+glimpse of the hard streak which there was undoubtedly in her character.
+Though he longed to press the question he judged that he had better not,
+so suggested carelessly:
+
+"Your sister, then?"
+
+But she met this suggestion, as he had expected her to, with equal
+calmness and pride.
+
+"My sister does not travel either."
+
+He looked the astonishment he did not feel and remarked gravely:
+
+"I fear, then, that the matter cannot be so easily adjusted." And he
+began to point out the difficulties in the way, to all of which she
+listened with a slightly absent air, as if the affair was in reality of
+no great importance to her.
+
+Suddenly she waved her hand with a quick gesture.
+
+"You can do as you please," said she. "If you can save us from loss, do
+so; if not, let the matter go; I shall not allow it to worry me
+further." Then she looked up at him with a total change of expression,
+and for the first time the hint of a smile softened the almost severe
+outline of her mouth. "You are searching, I hear, for a woman named
+Harriet Smith; have you found her, sir?"
+
+Delighted at this evidence on her part of a wish to indulge in general
+conversation, he answered with alacrity:
+
+"Not yet. She was not, as it seems, a well-known inhabitant of this town
+as I had been led to believe. I even begin to fear she never has lived
+here at all. The name is a new one to you, I presume."
+
+"Smith. Can the name of Smith ever be said to be new?" she laughed with
+something like an appearance of gayety.
+
+"But Harriet," he explained, "Harriet Smith, once Harriet Huckins."
+
+"I never knew any Harriet Smith," she averred. "Would it have obliged
+you very much if I had?"
+
+He smiled, somewhat baffled by her manner, but charmed by her voice,
+which was very rich and sweet in its tones.
+
+"It certainly would have saved me much labor and suspense," he replied.
+
+"Then the matter is serious?"
+
+"Is not all law-business serious?"
+
+"You have just proved it so," she remarked.
+
+He could not understand her; she seemed to wish to talk and yet
+hesitated with the words on her lips. After waiting for her to speak
+further and waiting in vain, he changed the subject back to the one
+which had at first occupied them.
+
+"I shall be in Marston again," said he; "if you will allow me I will
+then call again and tell you exactly what I can do for your interest."
+
+"If you will be so kind," she replied, and seemed to breathe easier.
+
+"I have one intimate friend in town," pursued Frank, as he rose to take
+his departure, "Dr. Sellick. If you know him----"
+
+Why did he pause? She had not moved and yet something, he could not say
+what, had made an entire change in her attitude and expression. It was
+as if a chill had passed over her, stiffening her limbs and paling her
+face, yet her eyes did not fall from his face, and she tried to speak as
+usual.
+
+"Dr. Sellick?"
+
+"Yes, he has returned to Marston after a year of absence. Have not the
+gossips told you that?"
+
+"No; that is, I have seen no one--I used to know Dr. Sellick," she
+added with a vain attempt to be natural. "Is that my sister I hear?" And
+she turned sharply about.
+
+Up to this moment she had uniformly kept the uninjured side of her face
+towards him, and he had noticed the fact and been profoundly touched by
+her seeming sensitiveness. But he was more touched now by the emotion
+which made her forget herself, for it argued badly for his hopes, and
+assured him that for all Sellick's assumed indifference, there had been
+some link of feeling between these two which he found himself illy
+prepared to accept.
+
+"May I not have the honor," he requested, "of an introduction to your
+sister?"
+
+"She is not coming; I was mistaken," was her sole reply, and her
+beautiful face turned once more towards him, with a deepening of its
+usual tragic expression which lent to it a severity which would have
+appalled most men. But he loved every change in that enigmatical
+countenance, there was so much character in its grave lines. So with the
+consideration that was a part of his nature he made a great effort to
+subdue his jealous curiosity, and saying, "Then we will reserve that
+pleasure till another time," bowed like a man at his ease, and passed
+quickly out of the door.
+
+Yet his heart was heavy and his thoughts in wildest turmoil; for he
+loved this woman and she had paled and showed the intensest emotion at
+the mention of a man whom he had heard decry her. He might have felt
+worse could he have seen the look of misery which settled upon her face
+as the door closed upon him, or noted how long she sat with fixed eyes
+and paling lips in that dreary old parlor where he had left her. As it
+was, he felt sufficiently disturbed and for a long time hesitated
+whether or not he should confront Edgar with an accusation of knowing
+Miss Cavanagh better than he acknowledged. But Sellick's reserve was one
+that imposed silence, and Frank dared not break through it lest he
+should lose the one opportunity he now had of visiting Marston freely.
+So he composed himself with the thought that he had at least gained a
+footing in the house, and if the rest did not follow he had only himself
+to blame. And in this spirit he again left Marston.
+
+He found plenty of work awaiting him in his office. Foremost in
+interest was an invitation to be present at the search which was to be
+instituted that afternoon in the premises of the Widow Wakeham. The will
+of which he had been made Executor, having been admitted to probate, it
+had been considered advisable to have an inventory made of the personal
+effects of the deceased, and this day had been set apart for the
+purpose. To meet this appointment he hurried all the rest, and at the
+hour set, he found himself before the broken gate and gardens of the
+ruinous old house in Flatbush. There was a crowd already gathered there,
+and as he made his appearance he was greeted by a loud murmur which
+amply proved that his errand was known. At the door he was met by the
+two Appraisers appointed by the Surrogate, and within he found one or
+two workmen hob-nobbing with a detective from police headquarters.
+
+The house looked barer and more desolate than ever. It was a sunshiny
+day, and the windows having been opened, the pitiless rays streamed in
+showing all the defects which time and misuse had created in the once
+stately mansion. Not a crack in plastering or woodwork but stood forth
+in bold relief that day, nor were the gaping holes in the flooring of
+hall and parlor able to hide themselves any longer under the strips of
+carpet with which Huckins had endeavored to conceal them.
+
+"Shall we begin with the lower floor?" asked one of the workmen, poising
+the axe he had brought with him.
+
+The Appraisers bowed, and the work of demolition began. As the first
+sound of splitting boards rang through the empty house, a quick cry as
+of a creature in pain burst from the staircase without, and they saw,
+crouching there with trembling hands held out in protest, the meagre
+form of Huckins.
+
+"Oh, don't! don't!" he began; but before they could answer, he had
+bounded down the stairs to where they stood and was looking with eager,
+staring eyes into the hole which the workmen had made.
+
+"Have you found anything?" he asked. "It is to be all mine, you know,
+and the more you find the richer I'll be. Let's see--let's see, she may
+have hidden something here, there is no knowing." And falling on his
+knees he thrust his long arm into the aperture before him, just as Mr.
+Dickey had seen him do in a similar case on the night of the old woman's
+death.
+
+But as his interference was not desired, he was drawn quietly back, and
+was simply allowed to stand there and watch while the others proceeded
+in their work. This he did with an excitement which showed itself in
+alternate starts and sudden breathless gasps, which, taken with the
+sickly smiles with which he endeavored to hide the frowns caused by his
+natural indignation, made a great impression upon Frank, who had come to
+regard him as a unique specimen in nature, something between a hyena and
+a fox.
+
+As the men held up a little packet which had at last come to light very
+near the fireplace, he gave a shriek and stretched out two clutching
+hands.
+
+"Let me have it!" he cried. "I know what that is; it disappeared from my
+sister's desk five years ago, and I could never get her to tell where
+she had put it. Let me have it, and I will open it here before you all.
+Indeed I will, sirs--though it is all mine, as I have said before."
+
+But Etheridge, quietly taking it, placed it in his pocket, and Huckins
+sank back with a groan.
+
+The next place to be examined was the room upstairs. Here the poor
+woman had spent most of her time till she was seized with her last
+sickness, and here the box had been found by Huckins, and here they
+expected to find the rest of her treasures. But beyond a small casket of
+almost worthless jewelry, nothing new was discovered, and they proceeded
+at Frank's suggestion to inspect the room where she had died, and where
+the clock still stood towards which she had lifted her dying hand, while
+saying, "There! there!"
+
+As they approached this place, Huckins was seen to tremble. Catching
+Frank by the arm, he whispered:
+
+"Can they be trusted? Are they honest men? She had greenbacks, piles of
+greenbacks; I have caught her counting them. If they find them, will
+they save them all for me?"
+
+"They will save them all for the heir," retorted Frank, severely. "Why
+do you say they are for you, when you know you will only get them in
+default of other heirs being found."
+
+"Why? why? Because I feel that they are mine. Heirs or no heirs, they
+will come into my grasp yet, and you of the law cannot help it. Do I
+look like a man who will die poor? No, no; but I don't want to be
+cheated. I don't want these men to rob me of anything which will
+rightfully be mine some day."
+
+"You need not fret about that," said Frank. "No one will rob _you_," and
+he drew disdainfully aside.
+
+The Appraisers had now surveyed the room awful with hideous memories to
+the young lawyer. Pointing to the bed, they said:
+
+"Search that," and the search was made.
+
+A bundle of letters came to light and were handed over to Frank.
+
+"Why did she hide those away?" screamed Huckins. "They ain't money."
+
+Nobody answered him.
+
+The lintels of the windows and doors were now looked into, and the
+fireplace dismantled and searched. But nothing was found in these
+places, nor in the staring cupboards or beneath the loosened boards.
+Finally they came to the clock.
+
+"Oh, let me," cried Huckins, "let me be the first to stop that clock. It
+has been running ever since I was a little boy. My mother used to wind
+it with her own hands. I cannot bear a stranger's hand to touch it.
+My--my sister would not have liked it."
+
+But they disregarded even this appeal; and he was forced to stand in the
+background and see the old piece taken down and laid at length upon the
+floor with its face to the boards. There was nothing in its interior but
+the works which belonged there, but the frame at its back seemed
+unusually heavy, and Etheridge consequently had this taken off, when, to
+the astonishment of all and to the frantic delight of Huckins, there
+appeared at the very first view, snugly laid between the true and false
+backing, layers of bills and piles of sealed and unsealed papers.
+
+"A fortune! A fortune!" cried this would-be possessor of his sister's
+hoarded savings. "I knew we should find it at last. I knew it wasn't all
+in that box. She tried to make me think it was, and made a great secret
+of where she had put it, and how it was all to be for me if I only let
+it alone. But the fortune was here in this old clock I have stared at a
+thousand times. Here, here, and I never knew it, never suspected it
+till----"
+
+He felt the lawyer's eyes fall on him, and became suddenly silent.
+
+"Let's count it!" he greedily cried, at last.
+
+But the Appraisers, maintaining their composure, motioned the almost
+frenzied man aside, and summoning Frank to assist them, made out a list
+of the papers, which were most of them valuable, and then proceeded to
+count the loose bills. The result was to make Huckins' eyes gleam with
+joy and satisfaction. As the last number left their lips, he threw up
+his arms in unrestrained glee, and cried:
+
+"I will make you all rich some day. Yes, sirs; I have not the greed of
+my poor dead sister; I intend to spend what is mine, and have a good
+time while I live. I don't intend any one to dance over my grave when I
+am dead."
+
+His attitude was one so suggestive of this very same expression of
+delight, that more than one who saw him and heard these words shuddered
+as they turned from him; but he did not care for cold shoulders now, or
+for any expression of disdain or disapproval. He had seen the fortune of
+his sister with his own eyes, and for that moment it was enough.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THE TWO SISTERS.
+
+
+When Frank returned again to Marston he did not hesitate to tell Edgar
+that "he had business relations with Miss Cavanagh." This astonished the
+doctor, who was of a more conservative nature, but he did not mingle his
+astonishment with any appearance of chagrin, so Frank took heart, and
+began to dream that he had been mistaken in the tokens which Miss
+Cavanagh had given of being moved by the news of Dr. Sellick's return.
+
+He went to see her as soon as he had supped with his friend, and this
+time he was introduced into a less formal apartment. Both sisters were
+present, and in the moment which followed the younger's introduction, he
+had leisure to note the similarity and dissimilarity between them, which
+made them such a delightful study to an interested observer.
+
+Emma was the name of the younger, and as she had the more ordinary and
+less poetic name, so at first view she had the more ordinary and less
+poetic nature. Yet as the eye lingered on her touching face, with its
+unmistakable lines of sadness, the slow assurance gained upon the mind
+that beneath her quiet smile and gentle self-contained air lay the same
+force of will which spoke at once in the firm lip and steady gaze of the
+older woman. But her will was beneficent, and her character noble, while
+Hermione bore the evidences of being under a cloud, whose shadow was
+darkened by something less easily understood than sorrow.
+
+Yet Hermione, and not Emma, moved his heart, and if he acknowledged to
+himself that a two-edged sword lay beneath the forced composure of her
+manner, it was with the same feelings with which he acknowledged the
+scar which offended all eyes but his own. They were both dressed in
+white, and Emma wore a cluster of snowy pinks in her belt, but Hermione
+was without ornament. The beauty of the latter was but faintly shadowed
+in her younger sister's face, yet had Emma been alone she would have
+stood in his mind as a sweet picture of melancholy young womanhood.
+
+Hermione was evidently glad to see him. Fresh and dainty as this, their
+living room, looked, with its delicate white curtains blowing in the
+twilight breeze, there were hours, no doubt, when it seemed no more than
+a prison-house to these two passionate young hearts. To-night cheer and
+an emanation from the large outside world had come into it with their
+young visitor, and both girls seemed sensible of it, and brightened
+visibly. The talk was, of course, upon business, and while he noticed
+that Hermione led the conversation, he also noticed that when Emma did
+speak it was with the same clear grasp of the subject which he had
+admired in the other. "Two keen minds," thought he, and became more
+deeply interested than ever in the mystery of their retirement, and
+evident renouncement of the world.
+
+He had to tell them he could do nothing for them unless one or both of
+them would consent to go to New York.
+
+"The magistrate whom I saw," said he, "asked if you were well, and when
+I was forced to say yes, answered that for no other reason than illness
+could he excuse you from appearing before him. So if you will not comply
+with his rules, I fear your cause must go, and with it whatever it
+involves."
+
+Emma, whose face showed the greater anxiety of the two, started as he
+said this, and glanced eagerly at her sister. But Hermione did not
+answer that glance. She was, perhaps, too much engaged in maintaining
+her own self-control, for the lines deepened in her face, and she all at
+once assumed that air of wild yet subdued suffering which had made him
+feel at the time of his first stolen glimpse of her face that it was the
+most tragic countenance he had ever beheld.
+
+"We cannot go," came forth sharply from her lips, after a short but
+painful pause. "The case must be dropped." And she rose, as if she could
+not bear the weight of her thoughts, and moved slowly to the window,
+where she leaned for a moment, her face turned blankly on the street
+without.
+
+Emma sighed, and her eyes fell with a strange pathos upon Frank's almost
+equally troubled face.
+
+"There is no use," her gentle looks seemed to say. "Do not urge her; it
+will be only one grief the more."
+
+But Frank was not one to heed such an appeal in sight of the noble
+drooping figure and set white face of the woman upon whose happiness he
+had fixed his own, though neither of these two knew it as yet. So, with
+a deprecating look at Emma, he crossed to Hermione's side, and with a
+slow, respectful voice exclaimed:
+
+"Do not make me feel as if I had been the cause of loss to you. An older
+man might have done better. Let me send an older man to you, then, or
+pray that you reconsider a decision which will always fill me with
+regret."
+
+But Hermione, turning slowly, fixed him with her eyes, whose meaning he
+was farther than ever from understanding, and saying gently, "The matter
+is at end, Mr. Etheridge," came back to the seat she had vacated, and
+motioned to him to return to the one he had just left. "Let as talk of
+other things," said she, and forced her lips to smile.
+
+He obeyed, and at once opened a general conversation. Both sisters
+joined in it, and such was his influence and the impulse of their own
+youth that gradually the depth of shadow departed from their faces and a
+certain grave sort of pleasure appeared there, giving him many a thrill
+of joy, and making the otherwise dismal hour one to be happily
+remembered by him through many a weary day and night.
+
+When he came to leave he asked Emma, who strangely enough had now become
+the most talkative of the two, whether there was not something he could
+do for her in New York or elsewhere before he came again.
+
+She shook her head, but in another moment, Hermione having stepped
+aside, she whispered:
+
+"Make my sister smile again as she did a minute ago, and you will give
+me all the happiness I seek."
+
+The words made him joyous, and the look he bestowed upon her in return
+had a promise in it which made the young girl's dreams lighter that
+night, for all the new cause of anxiety which had come into her secluded
+life.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+DORIS.
+
+
+Frank Etheridge walked musingly towards town. When half-way there he
+heard his name pronounced behind him in tremulous accents, and turning,
+saw hastening in his wake the woman who had brought him the message
+which first took him to Miss Cavanagh's house. She was panting with the
+haste she had made, and evidently wished to speak to him. He of course
+stopped, being only too anxious to know what the good woman had to say.
+She flushed as she came near to him.
+
+"Oh, sir," she cried with an odd mixture of eagerness and restraint, "I
+have been wanting to talk to you, and if you would be so good as to let
+me say what is on my mind, it would be a great satisfaction to me,
+please, and make me feel a deal easier."
+
+"I should be very glad to hear whatever you may have to tell me," was
+his natural response. "Are you in trouble? Can I help you?"
+
+"Oh, it is not that," she answered, looking about to see if any curious
+persons were peering at them through the neighboring window-blinds,
+"though I have my troubles, of course, as who hasn't in this hard, rough
+world; it is not of myself I want to speak, but of the young ladies. You
+take an interest in them, sir?"
+
+It was naturally put, yet it made his cheek glow.
+
+"I am their lawyer," he murmured.
+
+"I thought so," she went on as if she had not seen the evidences of
+emotion on his part, or if she had seen them had failed to interpret
+them. "Mr. Hamilton is a very good man but he is not of much use, sir;
+but you look different, as if you could influence them, and make them do
+as other people do, and enjoy the world, and go out to church, and see
+the neighbors, and be natural in short."
+
+"And they do not?"
+
+"Never, sir; haven't you heard? They never either of them set foot
+beyond the garden gate. Miss Emma enjoys the flower-beds and spends most
+of her time working at them or walking up and down between the poplars,
+but Miss Hermione keeps to the house and grows white and thin, studying
+and reading, and making herself wise--for what? No one comes to see
+them--that is, not often, sir, and when they do, they are stiff and
+formal, as if the air of the house was chilly with something nobody
+understood. It isn't right, and it's going against God's laws, for they
+are both well and able to go about the world as others do. Why, then,
+don't they do it? That is what I want to know."
+
+"And that is what everybody wants to know," returned Frank, smiling;
+"but as long as the young ladies do not care to explain themselves I do
+not see how you or any one else can criticise their conduct. They must
+have good reasons for their seclusion or they would never deny
+themselves all the pleasures natural to youth."
+
+"Reasons? What reasons can they have for actions so extraordinary? I
+don't know of any reason on God's earth which would keep me tied to the
+house, if my feet were able to travel and my eyes to see."
+
+"Do you live with them?"
+
+"Yes; or how could they get the necessaries of life? I do their
+marketing, go for the doctor when they are sick, pay their bills, and
+buy their dresses. That's why their frocks are no prettier," she
+explained.
+
+Frank felt his wonder increase.
+
+"It is certainly a great mystery," he acknowledged. "I have heard of
+elderly women showing their eccentricity in this way, but young girls!"
+
+"And such beautiful girls! Do you not think them beautiful?" she asked.
+
+He started and looked at the woman more closely. There was a tone in her
+voice when she put this question that for the first time made him think
+that she was less simple than her manner would seem to indicate.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked her abruptly.
+
+"Doris, sir."
+
+"And what is it you want of me?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I thought I told you; to talk to the young ladies and show
+them how wicked it is to slight the good gifts which the Lord has
+bestowed upon them. They may listen to you, sir; seeing that you are
+from out of town and have the ways of the big city about you."
+
+She was very humble now and had dropped her eyes in some confusion at
+his altered manner, so that she did not see how keenly his glance rested
+upon her nervous nostril, weak mouth, and obstinate chin. But she
+evidently felt his sudden distrust, for her hands clutched each other in
+embarrassment and she no longer spoke with the assurance with which she
+had commenced the conversation.
+
+"I like the young ladies," she now explained, "and it is for their own
+good I want them to do differently."
+
+"Have they never been talked to on the subject? Have not their friends
+or relatives tried to make them break their seclusion?"
+
+"Oh, sir, the times the minister has been to that house! And the doctor
+telling them they would lose their health if they kept on in the way
+they were going! But it was all waste breath; they only said they had
+their reasons, and left people to draw what conclusions they would."
+
+Frank Etheridge, who had a gentleman's instincts, and yet who was too
+much of a lawyer not to avail himself of the garrulity of another on a
+question he had so much at heart, stopped, and weighed the matter a
+moment with himself before he put the one or two questions which her
+revelations suggested. Should he dismiss the woman with a rebuke for her
+forwardness, or should he humor her love for talk and learn the few
+things further which he was in reality burning to hear. His love and
+interest naturally gained the victory over his pride, and he allowed
+himself to ask:
+
+"How long have they kept themselves shut up? Is it a year, do you
+think?"
+
+"Oh, a full year, sir; six months at least before their father died. We
+did not notice it at first, because they never said anything about it,
+but at last it became very evident, and then we calculated and found
+they had not stepped out of the house since the day of the great ball at
+Hartford."
+
+"The great ball!"
+
+"Yes, sir, a grand party that every one went to. But they did not go,
+though they had talked about it, and Miss Hermione had her dress ready.
+And they never went out again, not even to their father's funeral. Think
+of that, sir, not even to their father's funeral."
+
+"It is very strange," said he, determined at whatever cost to ask Edgar
+about that ball, and if he went to it.
+
+"And that is not all," continued his now thoroughly reassured
+companion. "They were never the same girls again after that time. Before
+then Miss Hermione was the admiration and pride of the whole town,
+notwithstanding that dreadful scar, while Miss Emma was the life of the
+house and of every gathering she went into. But afterwards--well, you
+can see for yourself what they are now; and it was just so before their
+father died."
+
+Frank longed to ask some questions about this father, but reason bade
+him desist. He was already humiliating himself enough in thus discussing
+the daughters with the servant who waited upon them; others must tell
+him about the old gentleman.
+
+"The house is just like a haunted house," Doris now remarked. Then as
+she saw him cast her a quick look of renewed interest, she glanced
+nervously down the street and asked eagerly: "Would you mind turning off
+into this lane, sir, where there are not so many persons to pry and peer
+at us? It is still early enough for people to see, and as everybody
+knows me and everybody by this time must know you, they may wonder to
+see us talking together, and I do so long to ease my whole conscience
+now I am about it."
+
+For reply, he took the road she had pointed out. When they were
+comfortably out of sight from the main street, he stopped again and
+said:
+
+"What do you mean by haunted?"
+
+"Oh, sir," she began, "not by ghosts; I don't believe in any such
+nonsense as ghosts; but by memories sir, memories of something which has
+happened within those four walls and which are now locked up in the
+hearts of those two girls, making them live like spectres. I am not a
+fanciful person myself, nor given to imaginings, but that house,
+especially on nights when the wind blows, seems to be full of something
+not in nature; and though I do not hear anything or see anything, I feel
+strange terrors and almost expect the walls to speak or the floors to
+give up their secrets, but they never do; and that is why I quake in my
+bed and lie awake so many nights."
+
+"Yet you are not fanciful, nor given to imaginings," smiled Frank.
+
+"No, for there is ground for my secret fears. I see it in the girls'
+pale looks, I hear it in the girls' restless tread as they pace hour
+after hour through those lonesome rooms."
+
+"They walk for exercise; they do not use the streets, so they make a
+promenade of their own floors."
+
+"Do people walk for exercise at night?"
+
+"At _night_?"
+
+"Late at night; at one, two, sometimes three, in the morning? Oh, sir,
+it is uncanny, I tell you."
+
+"They are not well; lack of change affects their nerves and they cannot
+sleep, so they walk."
+
+"Very likely, _but they do not walk together_. Sometimes it's one, and
+sometimes it's the other. I know their different steps, and I never hear
+them both at the same time."
+
+Frank felt a cold shiver thrill his blood.
+
+"I have been in the house," she resumed, after a minute's pause, "for
+five years; ever since Mrs. Cavanagh died, and I cannot tell you what
+its secret is. But it has one, I am certain, and I often go about the
+halls and into the different rooms and ask low to myself, 'Was it here
+that it happened, or was it there?' There is a little staircase on the
+second floor which takes a quick turn towards a big empty room where
+nobody ever sleeps, and though I have no reason for shuddering at that
+place, I always do, perhaps because it is in that big room the young
+ladies walk so much. Can you understand my feeling this way, and I no
+more than a servant to them?"
+
+A month ago he would have uttered a loud disclaimer, but he had changed
+much in some regards, so he answered: "Yes, if you really care for
+them."
+
+The look she gave him proved that she did, beyond all doubt.
+
+"If I did not care for them do you think I would stay in such a gloomy
+house? I love them both better than anything else in the whole world,
+and I would not leave them, not for all the money any one could offer
+me."
+
+She was evidently sincere, and Frank felt a vague relief.
+
+"I am glad," said he, "that they have so good a friend in their own
+house; as for your fears you will have to bear them, for I doubt if the
+young ladies will ever take any one into their confidence."
+
+"Not--not their lawyer?"
+
+"No," said he, "not even their lawyer."
+
+She looked disappointed and suddenly very ill at ease.
+
+"I thought you might be masterful," she murmured, "and find out.
+Perhaps you will some day, and then everything will be different. Miss
+Emma is the most amiable," said she, "and would not long remain a
+prisoner if Miss Hermione would consent to leave the house."
+
+"Miss Emma is the younger?"
+
+"Yes, yes, in everything."
+
+"And the sadder!"
+
+"I am not so sure about that, but she shows her feelings plainer,
+perhaps because her spirits used to be so high."
+
+Frank now felt they had talked long enough, interesting as was the topic
+on which they were engaged. So turning his face towards the town, he
+remarked:
+
+"I am going back to New York to-night, but I shall probably be in
+Marston again soon. Watch well over the young ladies, but do not think
+of repeating this interview unless something of great importance should
+occur. It would not please them if they knew you were in the habit of
+talking them over to me, and it is your duty to act just as they would
+wish you to."
+
+"I know it, sir, but when it is for their good----"
+
+"I understand; but let us not repeat it, Doris." And he bade her a kind
+but significant good-by.
+
+It was now quite dusk, and as he walked towards Dr. Sellick's office,
+he remembered with some satisfaction that Edgar was usually at home
+during the early evening. He wanted to talk to him about Hermione's
+father, and his mood was too impatient for a long delay. He found him as
+he expected, seated before his desk, and with his wonted precipitancy
+dashed at once into his subject.
+
+"Edgar, you told me once that you were acquainted with Miss Cavanagh's
+father; that you were accustomed to visit him. What kind of a man was
+he? A hard one?"
+
+Edgar, taken somewhat by surprise, faltered for a moment, but only for a
+moment.
+
+"I never have attempted to criticise him," said he; "but let me see; he
+was a straightforward man and a persistent one, never let go when he
+once entered upon a thing. He could be severe, but I should never have
+called him hard. He was like--well he was like Raynor, that professor of
+ours, who understood everything about beetles and butterflies and such
+small fry, and knew very little about men or their ways and tastes when
+they did not coincide with his own. Mr. Cavanagh's hobby was not in the
+line of natural history, but of chemistry, and that is why I visited him
+so much; we used to experiment together."
+
+"Was it his pastime or his profession? The house does not look as if it
+had been the abode of a rich man."
+
+"He was not rich, but he was well enough off to indulge his whims. I
+think he inherited the few thousands, upon the income of which he
+supported himself and family."
+
+"And he could be severe?"
+
+"Very, if he were interrupted in his work; at other times he was simply
+amiable and absent-minded. He only seemed to live when he had a retort
+before him."
+
+"Of what did he die?"
+
+"Apoplexy, I think; I was not here, so do not know the particulars."
+
+"Was he--" Frank turned and looked squarely at his friend, as he always
+did when he had a venturesome question to put--"was he fond of his
+daughters?"
+
+Edgar had probably been expecting some such turn in the conversation as
+this, yet he frowned and answered quite hastily, though with evident
+conscientiousness:
+
+"I could not make out; I do not know as I ever tried to; the matter did
+not interest me."
+
+But Frank was bound to have a definite reply.
+
+"I think you will be able to tell me if you will only give your mind to
+it for a few moments. A father cannot help but show some gleam of
+affection for two motherless girls."
+
+"Oh, he was proud of them," Edgar hurriedly asserted, "and liked to have
+them ready to hand him his coffee when his experiments were over; but
+fond of them in the way you mean, I think not. I imagine they often
+missed their mother."
+
+"Did you know _her_?"
+
+"No, only as a child. She died when I was a youngster."
+
+"You do not help me much," sighed Frank.
+
+"Help you?"
+
+"To solve the mystery of those girls' lives."
+
+"Oh!" was Edgar's short exclamation.
+
+"I thought I might get at it by learning about the father, but nothing
+seems to give me any clue."
+
+Edgar rose with a restless air.
+
+"Why not do as I do--let the matter alone?"
+
+"Because," cried Frank, hotly, "my affections are engaged. I love
+Hermione Cavanagh, and I cannot leave a matter alone that concerns her
+so nearly."
+
+"I see," quoth Edgar, and became very silent.
+
+When Frank returned to New York it was with the resolution to win the
+heart of Hermione and then ask her to tell him her secret. He was so
+sure that whatever it was, it was not one which would stand in the way
+of his happiness.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+LOVE.
+
+
+Frank's next business was to read the packet of letters which had been
+found in old Mrs. Wakeham's bed. The box abstracted by Huckins had been
+examined during his absence and found to contain securities, which,
+together with the ready money and papers taken from the clock, amounted
+to so many thousands that it had become quite a serious matter to find
+the heir. Huckins still clung to the house, but he gave no trouble. He
+was satisfied, he said, to abide by the second will, being convinced
+that if he were patient he would yet inherit through it. His sister
+Harriet was without doubt dead, and he professed great willingness to
+give any aid possible in verifying the fact. But as he could adduce no
+proofs nor suggest any clue to the discovery of this sister's
+whereabouts if living, or of her grave if dead, his offers were
+disregarded, and he was allowed to hermitize in the old house
+undisturbed.
+
+Meantime, false clues came in and false claims were raised by various
+needy adventurers. To follow up these clues and sift these claims took
+much of Frank Etheridge's time, and when he was not engaged upon this
+active work he employed himself in reading those letters to which I have
+already alluded.
+
+They were of old date and were from various sources. But they conveyed
+little that was likely to be of assistance to him. Of the twenty he
+finally read, only one was signed Harriet, and while that was very
+interesting to him, as giving some glimpses into the early history of
+this woman, it did not give him any facts upon which either he or the
+police could work. I will transcribe the letter here:
+
+    "MY DEAR CYNTHIA:
+
+    "You are the only one of the family to whom I dare write. I
+    have displeased father too much to ever hope for his
+    forgiveness, while mother will never go against his wishes, even
+    if the grief of it should make me die. I am very unhappy, I can
+    tell you that, more unhappy than even they could wish, but they
+    must never know it, never. I have still enough pride to wish to
+    keep my misery to myself, and it would be just the one thing
+    that would make my burden unbearable, to have them know I
+    regretted the marriage on account of which I have been turned
+    away from their hearts and home forever. But I do regret it,
+    Cynthia, from the bottom of my heart. He is not kind, and he is
+    not a gentleman, and I made a terrible mistake, as you can see.
+    But I do not think I was to blame. He seemed so devoted, and
+    used to make me such beautiful speeches that I never thought to
+    ask if he were a good man; and when father and mother opposed
+    him so bitterly that we had to meet by stealth, he was always so
+    considerate, and yet so determined, that he seemed to me like an
+    angel till we were married, and then it was too late to do
+    anything but accept my fate. I think he expected father to
+    forgive us and take us home, and when he found these
+    expectations false he became both ugly and sullen, and so my
+    life is nothing but a burden to me, and I almost wish I was
+    dead. But I am very strong, and so is he, and so we are likely
+    to live on, pulling away at the chain that binds us, till both
+    are old and gray.
+
+    "Pretty talk for a young girl's reading, is it not? But it
+    relieves me to pour out my heart to some one that loves me, and
+    I know that you do. But I shall never talk like this to you
+    again or ever write you another letter. You are my father's
+    darling, and I want you to remain so, and if you think too much
+    of me, or spend your time in writing to me, he will find it out,
+    and that will help neither of us. So good-by, little Cynthia,
+    and do not be angry that I put a false address at the top of the
+    page, or refuse to tell you where I live, or where I am going.
+    From this hour Harriet is dead to you, and nothing shall ever
+    induce me to break the silence which should remain between us
+    but my meeting you in another world, where all the follies of
+    this will be forgotten in the love that has survived both life
+    and death.
+
+        "Your sorrowing but true sister,
+            "HARRIET."
+
+The date was forty years back, and the address was New York City--an
+address which she acknowledged to be false. The letter was without
+envelope.
+
+The only other allusion to this sister found in the letters was in a
+short note written by a person called Mary, and it ran thus:
+
+    "Do you know whom I have seen? Your sister Harriet. It was in
+    the depot at New Haven. She was getting off the train and I was
+    getting on, but I knew her at once for all the change which ten
+    years make in the most of us, and catching her by the arm, I
+    cried, 'Harriet, Harriet, where are you living?' How she blushed
+    and what a start she gave! but as soon as she saw who it was she
+    answered readily enough, 'In Marston,' and disappeared in the
+    crowd before I could say another word. Wasn't it a happy chance,
+    and isn't it a relief to know she is alive and well. As for her
+    looks, they were quite lively, and she wore nice clothing like
+    one in very good circumstances. So you see her marriage did not
+    turn out as badly as some thought."
+
+This was of old date also, and gave no clue to the sender, save such as
+was conveyed by the signature Mary. Mary what? Mr. Huckins was the only
+person who was likely to know.
+
+Frank, who had but little confidence in this man and none in his desire
+to be of use in finding the legal heir, still thought it best to ask him
+if there was any old friend of the family whose first name was Mary. So
+he went to Flatbush one afternoon, and finding the old miser in his
+house, put to him this question and waited for his reply.
+
+It came just as he expected, with a great show of willingness that yet
+was without any positive result.
+
+"Mary? Mary?" he repeated, "we have known a dozen Marys. Do you mean any
+one belonging to this town?"
+
+"I mean some one with whom your sister was intimate thirty years ago.
+Some one who knew your other sister, the one who married Smith; some one
+who would simply sign her first name in writing to Mrs. Wakeham, and who
+in speaking of Mrs. Smith would call her Harriet."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated the cautious Huckins, dropping his eyes for fear they
+would convey more than his tongue might deem fit. "I'm afraid I was too
+young in those days to know much about my sister's friends. Can you tell
+me where she lived, or give me any information beyond her first name by
+which I could identify her?"
+
+"No," was the lawyer's quick retort; "if I could I should not need to
+consult you; I could find the woman myself."
+
+"Ah, I see, I see, and I wish I could help you, but I really don't know
+whom you mean, I don't indeed, sir. May I ask where you got the name,
+and why you want to find the woman?"
+
+"Yes, for it involves your prospects. This Mary, whoever she may have
+been, was the one to tell Mrs. Wakeham that Harriet Smith lived in
+Marston. Doesn't that jog your memory, Huckins? You know you cannot
+inherit the property till it is proved that Harriet is dead and left no
+heirs."
+
+"I know," he whined, and looked quite disconsolate, but he gave the
+lawyer no information, and Frank left at last with the feeling that he
+had reached the end of his rope.
+
+As a natural result, his thoughts turned to Marston--were they ever far
+away from there? "I will go and ease my heart of some of its burden,"
+thought he; "perhaps my head may be clearer then, and my mind freer for
+work." Accordingly he took the train that day, and just as the dew of
+evening began to fall, he rode into Marston and stopped at Miss
+Cavanagh's door.
+
+He found Hermione sitting at an old harp. She did not seem to have been
+playing but musing, and her hands hung somewhat listlessly upon the
+strings. As she rose the instrument gave out a thrilling wail that woke
+an echo in his sensibilities for which he was not prepared. He had
+considered himself in a hopeful frame of mind, and behold, he was
+laboring instead under a morbid fear that his errand would be in vain.
+Emma was not present, but another lady was, whose aspect of gentle old
+age was so sweet and winning that he involuntarily bent his head in
+reverence to her, before Hermione could utter the introduction which was
+trembling on her tongue.
+
+"My father's sister," said she, "and our very dear aunt. She is quite
+deaf, so she would not hear you speak if you attempted it, but she reads
+faces wonderfully, and you see she is smiling at you as she does not
+smile at every one. You may consider yourself introduced."
+
+Frank, who had a tender heart for all misfortune, surveyed the old lady
+wistfully. How placid she looked, how at home with her thoughts! It was
+peacefulness to the spirit to meet her eye. Bowing again, he turned
+towards Hermione and remarked:
+
+"What a very lovely face! She looks as if she had never known anything
+but the pleasures of life."
+
+"On the contrary," returned Hermione, "she has never known much but its
+disappointments. But they have left no trace on her face, or in her
+nature, I think. She is an embodiment of trust, and in the great silence
+there is about her, she hears sounds and sees visions which are denied
+to others. But when did you come to Marston?"
+
+He told her he had just arrived, and, satisfied with the slight look of
+confusion which mantled her face at this acknowledgment, launched into
+talk all tending to one end, his love for her. But he did not reach that
+end immediately; for if the old lady could not hear, she could see, and
+Frank, for all his impetuosity, possessed sufficient restraint upon
+himself not to subject himself or Hermione to the criticism of even this
+most benignant relative. Not till Mrs. Lovell left the room, as she did
+after a while,--being a very wise old lady as well as mild,--did he
+allow himself to say:
+
+"There can be but one reason now for my coming to Marston--to see you,
+Miss Cavanagh; I have no other business here."
+
+"I thought," she began, with some confusion,--evidently she had been
+taken by surprise,--"that you were looking for some one, a Harriet
+Smith, I think, whom you had reason to believe once lived here."
+
+"I did come to Marston originally on that errand, but I have so far
+failed in finding any trace of her in this place that I begin to think
+we were mistaken in our inferences that she had ever lived here."
+
+"Yet you had reason for thinking that she did," Hermione went on, with
+the anxiety of one desirous to put off the declaration she probably saw
+coming.
+
+"Yes; we had reasons, but they prove to have been unfounded."
+
+"Was--was your motive for finding her an important one?" she asked, with
+some hesitation, and a look of curiosity in her fine eyes.
+
+"Quite; a fortune of some thousands is involved in her discovery. She is
+heiress to at least a hundred thousand dollars from a sister she has not
+seen since they were girls together."
+
+"Indeed!" and Hermione's eyes opened in some surprise, then fell before
+the burning light in his.
+
+"But do not let us talk of a matter that for me is now of secondary
+interest," cried he, letting the full stream of his ardor find its way.
+"You are all I can think of now; you, you, whom I have loved since I
+caught the first glimpse of your face one night through the window
+yonder. Though I have known you but a little while, and though I cannot
+hope to have awakened a kindred feeling in you, you have so filled my
+mind and heart during the few short weeks since I learned your name,
+that I find it impossible to keep back the words which the sight of your
+face calls forth. I love you, and I want to guard you from loneliness
+forever. Will you give me that sweet right?"
+
+"But," she cried, starting to her feet in an excitement that made her
+face radiantly beautiful, "you do not seem to think of my misfortune,
+my----"
+
+"Do you mean this scar?" he whispered softly, gliding swiftly to her
+side. "It is no misfortune in my eyes; on the contrary, I think it
+endears you to me all the more. I love it, Hermione, because it is a
+part of you. See how I feel towards it!" and he bent his head with a
+quick movement, and imprinted a kiss upon the mark she had probably
+never touched herself but with shrinking.
+
+"Oh!" went up from her lips in a low cry, and she covered her face with
+her hands in a rush of feeling that was not entirely connected with that
+moment.
+
+"Did you think I would let that stand in my way?" he asked, with a
+proud tenderness with which no sensitive woman could fail to be
+impressed. "It is one reason more for a man to love your beautiful face,
+your noble manners, your soft white hand. I think half the pleasure
+would be gone from the prospect of loving you if I did not hope to make
+you forget what you have perhaps too often remembered."
+
+She dropped her hands, and he saw her eyes fixed upon him with a strange
+look.
+
+"O how wicked I have been!" she murmured. "And what good men there are
+in the world!"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It is not goodness," he began, but she stopped him with a wave of her
+hand.
+
+A strange elation seemed to have taken hold of her, and she walked the
+floor with lifted head and sparkling eye.
+
+"It restores my belief in love," she exclaimed, "and in mankind." And
+she seemed content just to brood upon that thought.
+
+But he was not; naturally he wished for some assurance from her; so he
+stepped in her path as she was crossing the room, and, taking her by the
+hands, said, smilingly:
+
+"Do you know how you can testify your appreciation in a way to make me
+perfectly happy?"
+
+She shook her head, and tried to draw her hands away.
+
+"By taking a walk, the least walk in the world, beyond that wooden
+gate."
+
+She shuddered and her hands fell from his.
+
+"You do not know what you ask," said she; then after a moment, "it was
+that I meant and not the scar, when I spoke of my misfortune. I cannot
+go outside the garden wall, and I was wrong to listen to your words for
+a moment, knowing what a barrier this fact raises up between us."
+
+"Hermione,--" he was very serious now, and she gathered up all her
+strength to meet the questions she knew were coming,--"why cannot you go
+beyond the garden gate? Cannot you tell me? Or do you hesitate because
+you are afraid I shall smile at your reasons for this determined
+seclusion?"
+
+"I am not afraid of your smiling, but I cannot give my reasons. That I
+consider them good must answer for us both."
+
+"Very well, then, we will let them answer. You need not take the walk I
+ask, but give me instead another pleasure--your promise to be my wife."
+
+"Your wife?"
+
+"Yes, Hermione."
+
+"With such a secret between us?"
+
+"It will not be a secret long."
+
+"Mr. Etheridge," she cried with emotion, "you do not know the woman you
+thus honor. If it had been Emma----"
+
+"It is you I love."
+
+"It would have been safe," she went on as if she had not heard him. "She
+is lovely, and amiable, and constant, and in her memory there is no dark
+scar as there is in mine, a scar deeper than this," she said, laying her
+finger on her cheek, "and fully as ineffaceable."
+
+"Some day you will take me into your confidence," he averred, "and then
+that scar will gradually disappear."
+
+"What confidence you have in me?" she cried. "What have you seen, what
+can you see in me to make you trust me so in face of my own words?"
+
+"I think it is the look in your eyes. There is purity there, Hermione,
+and a deep sadness which is too near like sorrow to be the result of an
+evil action."
+
+"What do you call evil?" she cried. Then suddenly, "I once did a great
+wrong--in a fit of temper--and I can never undo it, never, yet its
+consequences are lasting. Would you give your heart to a woman who could
+so forget herself, and who is capable of forgetting herself again if her
+passions are roused as they were then?"
+
+"Perhaps not," he acknowledged, "but my heart is already given and I do
+not know how to take it back."
+
+"Yet you must," said she. "No man with a career before him should marry
+a recluse, and I am that, whatever else I may or may not be. I would be
+doing a second ineffaceable wrong if I took advantage of your generous
+impulse and bound you to a fate that in less than two months would be
+intolerably irksome to one of your temperament."
+
+"Now you do not know me," he protested.
+
+But she heeded neither his words nor his pleading look.
+
+"I know human nature," she avowed, "and if I do not mingle much with
+the world I know the passions that sway it. I can never be the wife of
+any man, Mr. Etheridge, much less of one so generous and so
+self-forgetting as yourself."
+
+"Do you--are you certain?" he asked.
+
+"Certain."
+
+"Then I have not succeeded in raising one throb of interest in your
+breast?"
+
+She opened her lips and his heart stood still for her answer, but she
+closed them again and remained standing so long with her hands locked
+together and her face downcast, that his hopes revived again, and he was
+about to put in another plea for her hand when she looked up and said
+firmly:
+
+"I think you ought to know that my heart does not respond to your suit.
+It may make any disappointment which you feel less lasting."
+
+He uttered a low exclamation and stepped back.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said he, "I ought not to have annoyed you. You will
+forget my folly, I hope."
+
+"Do you forget it!" cried she; but her lips trembled and he saw it.
+
+"Hermione! Hermione!" he murmured, and was down at her feet before she
+could prevent it. "Oh, how I love you!" he breathed, and kissed her hand
+wildly, passionately.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+HOW MUCH DID IT MEAN?
+
+
+Frank Etheridge left the presence of Hermione Cavanagh, carrying with
+him an indelible impression of her slender, white-robed figure and
+pallid, passion-drawn face. There was such tragedy in the latter, that
+he shuddered at its memory, and stopped before he reached the gate to
+ask himself if the feeling she displayed was for him or another. If for
+another, then was that other Dr. Sellick, and as the name formed itself
+in his thoughts, he felt the dark cloud of jealousy creep over his mind,
+obscuring the past and making dangerous the future.
+
+"How can I know," thought he, "how can I know?" and just as the second
+repetition passed his lips, he heard a soft step near him, and, looking
+up, saw the gentle Emma watering her flowers.
+
+To gain her side was his first impulse. To obtain her confidence the
+second. Taking the heavy watering-pot from her hand, he poured its
+contents on the rose-bush she was tending, and then setting it down,
+said quietly:
+
+"I have just made your sister very unhappy, Miss Cavanagh."
+
+She started and her soft eyes showed the shadow of an alarm.
+
+"I thought you were her friend," she said.
+
+He drew her around the corner of the house towards the poplar trees.
+"Had I been only that," he avowed, "I might have spared her pain, but I
+am more than that, Miss Cavanagh, I am her lover."
+
+The hesitating step at his side paused, and though no great change came
+into her face, she seemed to have received a shock.
+
+"I can understand," said she, "that you hurt her."
+
+"Is she so wedded to the past, then?" he cried. "Was there some one, is
+there some one whom she--she----"
+
+He could not finish, but the candid-eyed girl beside him did not profess
+to misunderstand him. A pitiful smile crossed her lips, and she looked
+for a minute whiter than her sister had done, but she answered firmly:
+
+"You could easily overcome any mere memory, but the decision she has
+made never to leave the house, I fear you cannot overcome."
+
+"Does it spring--forgive me if I go beyond the bounds of discretion, but
+this mystery is driving me mad--does it spring from that past attachment
+you have almost acknowledged?"
+
+She drooped her head and his heart misgave him. Why should he hurt both
+these women when his whole feeling towards them was one of kindness and
+love?
+
+"Pardon me," he pleaded. "I withdraw the question; I had no right to put
+it."
+
+"Thank you," said she, and looked away from him towards the distant
+prospect of hill and valley lying before them.
+
+He stood revolving the matter in his disturbed mind.
+
+"I should have been glad to have been the means of happiness to your
+sister and yourself. Such seclusion as you have imposed upon yourselves
+seems unnecessary, but if it must be, and this garden wall is destined
+to be the boundary of your world, it would have been a great pleasure to
+me to have brought into it some freshness from the life which lies
+beyond it. But it is destined not to be."
+
+The sad expression in her face changed into one of wistfulness.
+
+"Then you are not coming any more?" said she.
+
+He caught his breath. There was disappointment in her tones and this
+could mean nothing but regret, and regret meant the loss of something
+which might have been hope. She felt, then, that he might have won her
+sister if he had been more patient.
+
+"Do you think it will do for me to come here after your sister has told
+me that it was useless for me to aspire to her hand?"
+
+She gave him for the first time a glance that had the element of
+mirthfulness in it.
+
+"Come as my friend," she suggested; then in a more serious mood added:
+"It is her only chance of happiness, but I do not know that I would be
+doing right in influencing you to pursue a suit which may not be for
+yours. _You_ know, or will know after reflection (and I advise you to
+reflect well), whether an alliance with women situated as we are would
+be conducive to your welfare. If you decide yes, think that a woman
+taken by surprise, as my sister undoubtedly was, may not in the first
+hurried moment of decision know her own mind, but also remember that no
+woman who has taken such a decision as she has, is cast in the common
+mould, and that you may but add to your regrets by a persistency she may
+never fully reward."
+
+Astonished at her manner and still more astonished at the intimation
+conveyed in her last words, he looked at her as one who would say:
+
+"But you also share her fate and the resolve that made it."
+
+She seemed to understand him.
+
+"Free Hermione," she whispered, "from the shackles she has wound about
+herself and you will free me."
+
+"Miss Emma," he began, but she put her finger on her lips.
+
+"Hush!" she entreated; "let us not talk any more about it. I have
+already said what I never meant should pass my lips; but the affection I
+bear my sister made me forget myself; she does so need to love and be
+loved."
+
+"And you think I----"
+
+"Ah, sir, you must be the judge of your own chances. You have heard her
+refusal and must best know just how much it means."
+
+"How much it means!" Long did Frank muse over that phrase, after he had
+left the sweet girl who had uttered it. As he sat with Edgar at supper,
+his abstracted countenance showed that he was still revolving the
+question, though he endeavored to seem at home with his friend and
+interested in the last serious case which had occupied the attention of
+the newly settled doctor. How much it means! Not much, he was beginning
+to say to himself, and insensibly his face began to brighten and his
+manner to grow less restrained, when Edgar, who had been watching him
+furtively, broke out:
+
+"Now you are more like yourself. Business responsibilities are as hard
+to shake off as a critical case in medicine."
+
+"Yes," was the muttered reply, as Frank rose from the table, and took
+the cigar his friend offered him. "And business with me just now is
+particularly perplexing. I cannot get any clue to Harriet Smith or her
+heirs, nor can the police or the presumably sharp detective I have put
+upon the search."
+
+"That must please Huckins."
+
+"Yes, confound him! such a villain as he is! I sometimes wonder if he
+killed his sister."
+
+"That you can certainly find out."
+
+"No, for she had a mortal complaint, and that satisfies the physicians.
+But there are ways of hastening a death, and those I dare avow he would
+not be above using. The greed in his eyes would do anything; it even
+suffices to make him my very good friend, now that he sees that he might
+lose everything by opposing me."
+
+"I am glad you see through his friendship."
+
+"See through a sieve?"
+
+"He plays his part badly, then?"
+
+"He cannot help it, with that face of his; and then he gave himself away
+in the beginning. No attitude he could take now would make me forget the
+sneak I saw in him then."
+
+This topic was interesting, but Edgar knew it was no matter of business
+which had caused the fitful changes he had been observing in Frank's
+tell-tale countenance. Yet he did not broach any other theme, and it was
+Frank who finally remarked:
+
+"I suppose you think me a fool to fix my heart on a woman with a
+secret."
+
+"Fool is a strong word," answered Edgar, somewhat bitterly, "but that
+you were unfortunate to have been attracted by Hermione Cavanagh, I
+think any man would acknowledge. You would acknowledge it yourself, if
+you stopped to weigh the consequences of indulging a passion for a woman
+so eccentric."
+
+"Perhaps I should, if my interest would allow me to stop. But it won't,
+Edgar; it has got too strong a hold upon me; everything else sinks in
+importance before it. I love her, and am willing to sacrifice something
+for her sake."
+
+"Something, perhaps; but in this case it would be everything."
+
+"I do not think so."
+
+"You do not think so now; but you would soon."
+
+"Perhaps I should, but it is hard to realize it. Besides, she would drop
+her eccentricities if her affections once became engaged."
+
+"Oh, if you have assurance of that."
+
+"Do I need assurance? Doesn't it stand to reason? A woman loved is so
+different from a woman----" scorned, he was going to say, but,
+remembering himself, added softly, "from a woman who has no one to think
+of but herself."
+
+"This woman has a sister," observed Edgar.
+
+Frank faltered. "Yes, and that sister is involved in her fate," thought
+he, but he said, quietly: "Emma Cavanagh does not complain of Hermione;
+on the contrary, she expresses the greatest affection for her."
+
+"They are both mysteries," exclaimed Edgar, and dropped the subject,
+though it was not half talked out.
+
+Frank was quite willing to accept his silence, for he was out of sorts
+with his friend and with himself. He knew his passion was a mad one, and
+yet he felt that it had made giant strides that day, and had really been
+augmented instead of diminished by the refusal he had received from
+Hermione, and the encouragement to persistence which he had received
+from her usually shy sister. As the evening wore on and the night
+approached, his thoughts not only grew in intensity, but deepened into
+tenderness. It was undoubtedly a passion that had smitten him, but that
+passion was hallowed by the unselfish feelings of a profound affection.
+He did not want her to engage herself to him if it would not be for her
+happiness. That it would be, every throb of his heart assured him, but
+he might be mistaken, and if so, better her dreams of the past than a
+future he could not make bright. He was so moved at the turmoil which
+his thoughts made in his usually quiet breast, that he could not think
+of sleep, but sat in his room for hours indulging in dreams which his
+practical nature would have greatly scorned a few short weeks before. He
+saw her again in fancy in every attitude in which his eyes had ever
+beheld her, and sanctified thus by distance, her beauty seemed both
+wonderful and touching. And that was not all. Some chord between them
+seemed to have been struck, and he felt himself drawn towards her as if
+(it was a strange fancy) she stood by that garden gate, and was looking
+in his direction with rapt, appealing eyes. So strong became that fancy
+at last, that he actually rose to his feet and went to the window which
+opened towards the south.
+
+"Hermione! Hermione!" broke in longing from his lips, and then annoyed
+at what he could not but consider a display of weakness on his part, he
+withdrew himself from the window, determined to forget for the moment
+that there lived for him such a cause for love and sorrow. But what man
+can forget by a mere effort of will, or what lover shut his eyes to the
+haunting vision which projects itself upon the inner consciousness. In
+fancy he saw her still, and this time she seemed to be pacing up and
+down the poplar walk, wringing her hands and wildly calling his name. It
+was more than he could bear. He must know if this was only an
+hallucination, and in a feverish impulse he rushed from his room with
+the intention of going to her at once.
+
+But he no sooner stood in the hall than he realized he was not alone in
+the house, and that he should have to pass Edgar's door. He naturally
+felt some hesitation at this and was inclined to give up his purpose.
+But the fever urging him on said no; so stealing warily down the hall he
+stepped softly by the threshold of his friend's room, when to his
+surprise he perceived that the door was ajar.
+
+Pushing it gently open he found the room brilliant with moonlight but
+empty. Greatly relieved and considering that the doctor had been sent
+for by some suffering patient, he passed at once out of the house.
+
+He went directly to that of Hermione, walking where the shadows were
+thickest as if he were afraid of being recognized. But no one was in the
+streets, and when he reached the point where the tall poplar-trees made
+a wall against the moonbeams, he slid into the deep obscurity he found
+there with a feeling of relief such as the heart experiences when it is
+suddenly released from some great strain.
+
+Was she in the poplar walk? He did not mean to accost her if she were,
+nor to show himself or pass beyond the boundary of the wall, but he must
+know if her restless spirit drove her to pace these moonlit walks, and
+if it were true or not that she was murmuring his name.
+
+The gate which opened in the wall at the side of the house was in a
+direct line with the window he had long ago fixed upon as hers. He
+accordingly took up his station at that spot and as he did so he was
+sure that he saw the flitting of some dark form amid the alternate bands
+of moonlight and shadow that lay across the weird pathway before him.
+Holding his breath he listened. Oh, the stillness of the night! How
+awesome and yet how sweet it was! But is there no break in the universal
+silence? Above his head the ever restless leaves make a low murmuring,
+and far away in the dim distances rises a faint sound that he cannot
+mistake; it is the light footfall of a dainty woman.
+
+He can see her now. She is coming towards him, her shadow gliding before
+her. Seeing it he quails. From the rush of emotion seizing him, he knows
+that he should not be upon this spot, and panting with the effort, he
+turns and flees just as the sudden sound of a lifted window comes from
+the house.
+
+That arrests him. Pausing, he looks up. It is her window that is open,
+and in the dark square thus made he sees her face bright with the
+moonlight streaming over it. Instantly he recovers himself. It is Emma's
+step, not Hermione's, he hears upon the walk. Hermione is above and in
+an anxious mood, for she is looking eagerly out and calling her sister
+by name.
+
+"I am coming," answers back the clear, low voice of Emma from below.
+
+"It is late," cries Hermione, "and very cold. Come in, Emma."
+
+"I am coming," repeated the young girl. And in another moment he heard
+her step draw nearer, saw her flitting figure halt for a moment on the
+door-step before him and then disappear just as the window closed above.
+He had not been observed.
+
+Relieved, he drew a long breath and leaned his head against the garden
+wall. Ah, how fair had been the vision of his beloved one's face in the
+moonlight. It filled him with indescribable thoughts; it made his spirit
+reel and his heart burn; it made him ten times her lover. Yet because he
+was her lover he felt that he ought not to linger there any longer; that
+the place was hallowed even from his presence, and that he should return
+at once to the doctor's house. But when he lifted his head he heard
+steps, this time not within the wall but on the roadside behind him, and
+alert at once to the mischievous surmises which might be aroused by the
+discovery of his presence there, he remained perfectly still in the hope
+that his form would be so lost in the deep shadows where he had
+withdrawn himself, that he would not be seen.
+
+But the person, whoever it was, had evidently already detected him, for
+the footsteps turned the corner and advanced rapidly to where he stood.
+Should he step forward and meet the intruder, or remain still and await
+the words of surprise he had every reason to expect? He decided to
+remain where he was, and in another moment realized his wisdom in doing
+so, for the footsteps passed on and did not halt till they had reached
+the gate. But they paused there and at once he felt himself seized by a
+sudden jealousy and took a step forward, eager to see what this man
+would do.
+
+He did not do much; he cast a look up at the house, and a heavy sigh
+broke from his lips; then he leaned forward and plucked a rose that grew
+inside the wall and kissed it there in the moonlight, and put it inside
+his breast-pocket; then he turned again towards the highway, and started
+back in surprise to see Frank Etheridge standing before him.
+
+"Edgar!" cried the one.
+
+"Frank!" exclaimed the other.
+
+"You have misled me," accused Frank; "you do love her, or you would not
+be here."
+
+"Love whom?" asked Edgar, bitterly.
+
+"Hermione."
+
+"Does Hermione tend the flowers?"
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Frank, understanding his friend for the first time;
+"it is Emma you are attached to. I see! I see! Forgive me, Edgar;
+passion is so blind to everything but its own object. Of course it is
+Emma; why shouldn't it be!"
+
+Yet for all its assurance his voice had strange tones in it, and Edgar,
+already annoyed at his own self-betrayal, looked at him suspiciously as
+they drew away together towards the main street.
+
+"I am glad to find this out," said Frank, with a hilarity slightly
+forced, or so thought his friend, who could not know what thoughts and
+hopes this discovery had awakened in the other's breast. "You have kept
+your secret well, but now that I know it you cannot refuse to make me
+your confidant, when there is so much to tell involving my happiness as
+well as your own."
+
+"I have no happiness, Frank."
+
+"Nor I; but I mean to have."
+
+"Mean to marry Miss Cavanagh?"
+
+"Of course, if I can induce her to marry me."
+
+"I do not mean to marry Emma."
+
+"You do not? Because she has a secret? because she is involved in a
+mystery?"
+
+"Partly; that would be enough, Frank; but I have another good reason.
+Miss Emma Cavanagh does not care for me."
+
+"You know that? You have asked her?"
+
+"A year ago; this is no sudden passion with me; I have loved her all my
+life."
+
+"Edgar! And you mean to give her up?"
+
+"Give her up?"
+
+"If I were you, nothing would induce me to resign my hopes, not even her
+own coldness. I _would_ win her. Have you tried again since your
+return?"
+
+"Frank, she is a recluse now; I could not marry a recluse; my wife must
+play her part in the world, and be my helpmate abroad as well as at
+home."
+
+"Yes, yes; but as I said in my own case, win her love and that will all
+right itself. No woman's resolve will hold out against a true passion."
+
+"But you forget, she has no true passion for me."
+
+Frank did not answer; he was musing over the subject. He had had an
+opportunity for seeing into the hearts of these girls which had been
+denied to Edgar. Had he seen love there? Yes, but in Hermione's breast,
+not Emma's. And yet Emma was deeply sad, and it was Emma whom he had
+just seen walking her restlessness off under the trees at midnight.
+
+"Edgar," he suddenly exclaimed, "you may not understand this girl. Their
+whole existence is a mystery, and so may their hearts be. Won't you tell
+me how it was she refused you? It may serve to throw some light upon the
+facts."
+
+"What light? She refused me as all coquettish women refuse the men whom
+they have led to believe in their affection."
+
+"Ah! you once believed, then, in her affection."
+
+"Should I have offered myself if I had not?"
+
+"I don't know; I only know I didn't wait for any such belief on the part
+of Hermione."
+
+"You are impulsive, Frank, I am not; I weigh well what I do, fortunately
+for myself."
+
+"Yet you did not prosper in this affair."
+
+"No, because I did not take a woman's waywardness into consideration. I
+thought I had a right to count upon her regard, and I found myself
+mistaken."
+
+"Explain yourself," entreated Frank.
+
+"Will not to-morrow do? Here we are at home, and it must be one o'clock
+at least."
+
+"I should sleep better if I knew it all now," Frank intimated.
+
+"Well, then, come to my room; but there is nothing in the story to
+specially interest you. I loved her----"
+
+"Edgar, you must be explicit. I am half lawyer in listening to this
+tale; I want to understand these girls."
+
+"Girls? It is of Emma only that I have to speak."
+
+"I know, but tell the story with some details; tell me where you first
+met her."
+
+"Oh, if I must," sighed Edgar, who hated all talk about himself, "let's
+be comfortable." And throwing himself into a chair, he pointed out
+another to Frank.
+
+"This is more like it," acknowledged the latter.
+
+Edgar lit a cigar; perhaps he felt that he could hide all emotion behind
+its fumes. Frank did not take one.
+
+"I have known Emma Cavanagh ever since we were children," began Edgar.
+"As a school-boy I thought her the merriest-eyed witch in town.---- Is
+she merry now?"
+
+Frank shook his head.
+
+"Well, I suppose she has grown older, but then she was as full of
+laughter and fun as any blue-eyed Mischief could well be, and I, who
+have a cynical turn of mind, liked the brightness of hers as I shall
+never like her sadness--if she is sad. But that was in my adolescence,
+and being as shy as I was inclined to be cynical, I never showed her my
+preference, or even joined the mirthful company of which she was the
+head. I preferred to stand back and hear her laughter, or talk to
+Hermione while watching her sister."
+
+"Ah!" thought Frank.
+
+"When I went to college she went to school, and when I graduated as a
+doctor she was about graduating also. But she did not come home at that
+time for more than a fleeting visit. Friends wished her company on a
+trip abroad, and she went away from Marston just as I settled here for
+my first year of practice. I was disappointed at this, but I made what
+amends to myself I could by cultivating the acquaintance of her father,
+and making myself necessary to him by my interest in his studies. I
+spent much of my spare time at the house, and though I never asked after
+Emma, I used to get continual news of her from her sister."
+
+"Ah!" again ejaculated Frank to himself.
+
+"At last she returned, and--I do not know how she looks now, but she
+was pretty then, wonderfully pretty, and more animated in her manner
+than any other woman I have ever seen. I saw her first at a picnic, and
+though I lacked courage to betray the full force of my feeling, I
+imagined she understood me, for her smiles became dazzling, and she
+joked with everybody but me. At last I had her for a few minutes to
+myself, and then the pent up passion of months had its way, and I asked
+her to be my wife. Frank, you may find it easy to talk about these
+things, but I do not. I can only say she seemed to listen to me with
+modest delight, and when I asked her for her answer she gave me a look I
+shall never forget, and would have spoken but that her father called her
+just then, and we were obliged to separate. I saw her for just another
+moment that day, but there were others about, and I could only whisper,
+'If you love me, come to the ball next week'; to which she gave me no
+other reply than an arch look and a smile which, as I have said before,
+appeared to promise me all I could desire. Appeared, but did not; for
+when I called at the house the next day I was told that Mr. Cavanagh was
+engaged in an experiment that could not be interrupted, and when I asked
+to see the ladies received word that they were very busy preparing for
+the ball and could see no one. Relieved at this, for the ball was near
+at hand, I went home, and being anxious to do the honorable thing, I
+wrote to Mr. Cavanagh, and, telling him that I loved his daughter,
+formally asked for the honor of her hand. This note I sent by a
+messenger.
+
+"I did not receive an immediate reply (why do you want all these
+particulars, Frank?); but I did not worry, for her look was still warm
+in my memory. But when two days passed and no message arrived I became
+uneasy, and had it not been for the well-known indifference of Mr.
+Cavanagh to all affairs of life outside of his laboratory, I should have
+given up in despair. But as it was, I kept my courage up till the night
+of the ball, when it suddenly fell, never to rise again. For will you
+believe it, Frank, she was not there, nor any of her family, though all
+had engaged to go, and had made many preparations for the affair, as I
+knew."
+
+"And did no letter come? Did you never see Miss Cavanagh again, or any
+of her family?"
+
+"I received a note, but it was very short, though it was in Emma's
+handwriting. She had not been well, was her excuse, and so could not be
+present at the ball. As for the offer I had been kind enough to make
+her, it was far above her deserts, and so must be gratefully declined.
+Then came a burst of something like contrition, and the prayer that I
+would not seek to make her alter her mind, as her decision was
+irrevocable. Added to this was one line from her father, to the effect
+that interesting as our studies were, he felt compelled to tell me he
+should have no further time to give to them at present, and so bade me a
+kindly adieu. Was there ever a more complete dismissal? I felt as if I
+had been thrust out of the house."
+
+Frank, who was nothing if not sympathetic, nodded quickly, but did not
+break into those open expressions of indignation which his friend had
+evidently anticipated. The truth was, he was too busy considering the
+affair, and asking himself what part Hermione had taken in it, and
+whether all its incongruities were not in some way due to her. He was so
+anxious to assure himself that this was not so, that he finally asked:
+
+"And was that the end? Did you never see any of them again?"
+
+"I did not wish to," was the answer. "I had already thought of trying my
+fortunes in the West, and when this letter came, it determined me. In
+three weeks I had left Marston as I thought forever, but I was not
+successful in the West."
+
+"And you will be here," observed Frank.
+
+"I think so," said Edgar, and became suddenly silent.
+
+Frank looked at him a long time and then said quietly:
+
+"I am glad you love her still."
+
+Edgar, flushing, opened his lips, but the other would not listen to any
+denial.
+
+"If you had not loved her, you would not have come back to Marston, and
+if you did not love her still, you would not pluck roses from her wall
+at midnight."
+
+"I was returning from a patient," objected Edgar, shortly.
+
+"I know, but you _stopped_. You need not blush to own it, for, as I say,
+I think it a good thing that you have not forgotten Miss Cavanagh." And
+not being willing to explain himself further, Frank rose and sauntered
+towards the door. "We have talked well into the night," he remarked;
+"supposing we let up now, and continue our conversation to-morrow."
+
+"I am willing to let up," acquiesced Edgar, "but why continue to-morrow?
+Nothing can be gained by fruitless conjectures on this subject, while
+much peace of mind may be lost by them."
+
+"Well, perhaps you are right," quoth Frank.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+FRESH DOUBTS.
+
+
+Frank was recalled to business the next day by the following letter from
+Flatbush:
+
+    DEAR MR. ETHERIDGE:
+
+    It has been discovered this afternoon that Mr. Huckins has left
+    town. When he went or where he has gone, no one seems to know.
+    Indeed, it was supposed that he was still in the house, where he
+    has been hiding ever since the investigations were over, but a
+    neighbor, having occasion to go in there to-day, found the
+    building empty, and all of Mr. Huckins' belongings missing. I
+    thought you would like to know of this disappearance.
+
+        Yours truly,
+            A. W. SENEY.
+
+As this was an affair for the police, Frank immediately returned to New
+York; but it was not many days before he was back again in Marston,
+determined to see Miss Cavanagh once more, and learn if his suit was as
+really hopeless as it appeared. He brought a box of some beautiful
+orchids with him, and these he presented to Miss Emma as being the one
+most devoted to flowers.
+
+Hermione looked a little startled at his presence, but Mrs. Lovell, the
+dear old lady who was paying them a visit, smiled gently upon him, and
+he argued well from that smile, knowing that it was not without its
+meaning from one whose eyes were so bright with intelligence as her's.
+
+The evening was cool for summer, and a fire had been lighted in the
+grate. By this fire they all sat and Frank, who was strangely happy,
+entertained the three recluses with merry talk which was not without a
+hidden meaning for one of the quiet listeners. When the old aunt rose
+and slipped away, the three drew nearer, and the conversation became
+more personal. At last--how was it done--Emma vanished also, and Frank,
+turning to utter some witty speech, found only Hermione's eyes
+confronting him in the fire-glow. At once the words faltered on his
+tongue, and leaning forward he reached out his hand, for she was about
+to rise also.
+
+"Do not rob me of this one moment," he prayed. "I have come back, you
+see, because I could not stay away. Say that it does not anger you; say
+that I may come now and then and see your face, even if I may not hope
+for all that my heart craves."
+
+"Do I look angry?" she asked, with a sad smile.
+
+"No," he whispered; "nor do you look glad."
+
+"Glad," she murmured, "glad"; and the bitterness in her tone revealed
+to him how strong were the passions that animated her. "I have no
+business with gladness, not even if my own fate changed. I have
+forfeited all joy, Mr. Etheridge; and that I thought you understood."
+
+"You speak like one who has committed a crime," he smiled; "nothing else
+should make you feel as you do."
+
+She started and her eyes fell. Then they rose suddenly and looked
+squarely into his. "There are other crimes than those which are marked
+by blood," said she. "Perhaps I am not altogether guiltless."
+
+Frank shuddered; he had expected her to repel the charge which he had
+only made in the hopes of showing her into what a morbid condition she
+had fallen.
+
+"My hands are clean," she went on, "but my soul is in shadow. Why did
+you make me speak of it? You are my friend and I want to keep your
+friendship, but you see why it must not grow into love; _must not_ I
+say, for both our sakes. It would be fatal."
+
+"I do not see that," he cried impetuously. "You do not make me see it.
+You hint and assert, but you tell me nothing. You should give me facts,
+Hermione, and then I could judge whether I should go or stay."
+
+She flushed, and her face, which had been lifted to his, slowly sank.
+
+"You do not know what you ask of me," she murmured.
+
+"I know that I have asked you to be my wife."
+
+"And it was generous of you, very generous. Such generosity merits
+confidence, but--Let us talk of something else," she cried. "I am not
+fit--not well enough, I mean, to speak of serious matters to-night. Tell
+me about your affairs. Tell me if you have found Harriet Smith."
+
+"No," he returned, greatly disappointed, for there had been something
+like yielding in her manner a moment before. "There is no Harriet Smith,
+and I do not even know that there is a Hiram Huckins, for he too has
+disappeared and cannot be found."
+
+"Hiram Huckins?"
+
+"Yes, her brother and the brother of Mrs. Wakeham, whose will has made
+all this trouble. He is the heir who will inherit her property if
+Harriet Smith or her children cannot be found, and as the latter
+contingency is not likely to happen, it is odd that he should have run
+away without letting us know where he can be found."
+
+"Is he a good man?"
+
+"Hardly. Indeed I consider him a rascal; but he has a good claim on the
+property, as I have already said, and that is what angers me. A hundred
+thousand dollars should not fall into the hands of one so mean and
+selfish as he is."
+
+"Poetic justice is not always shown in this world. Perhaps if you found
+the true heirs, you would find them also lacking in much that was
+admirable."
+
+"Possibly; but they would not be apt to be as bad as he is."
+
+"Is he dishonest?"
+
+"I do not like to accuse him, but neither would I like to trust him
+with another man's money."
+
+"That is unfortunate," said she. "And he will really have this money if
+you do not find any nearer heirs?"
+
+"Certainly; his name follows theirs in the will."
+
+"It is a pity," she observed, rising and moving towards the harp. "Do
+you want to hear a song that Emma composed when we were happier than we
+are now?"
+
+"Indeed I do," was his eager reply. "Sing, I entreat you, sing; it will
+make me feel as if the gloom was lifting from between us."
+
+But at this word, she came quickly back and sat down in her former place
+by the fire.
+
+"I do not know what came over me," said she; "I never sing." And she
+looked with a severe and sombre gaze into the flames before her.
+
+"Hermione, have you no right to joy, or even to give joy to others?"
+
+"Tell me more about the case that is interesting you. Supposing you
+found Harriet Smith or her children?"
+
+"I would show them the will and put them in the way of securing their
+fortune."
+
+"_I_ should like to see that will."
+
+"Would you?"
+
+"Yes, it would interest me."
+
+"You do not look very interested."
+
+"Do I not? Yet I am, I assure you."
+
+"Then you shall see it, or rather this newspaper copy of it which I
+happen to have in my pocket-book."
+
+"What, that little slip?"
+
+"It is not very large."
+
+"I thought a will was something ponderous."
+
+"Sometimes it is, but this is short and very much to the point; it was
+drawn up in haste."
+
+"Let me take it," said she.
+
+She took it and carried it over to the lamp. Suddenly she turned about
+and her face was very white.
+
+"What odd provision is this," she cried, "about the heir being required
+to live a year in the house where this woman died?"
+
+"Oh," said he, "that is nothing; any one who inherits this money would
+not mind such a condition as that. Mrs. Wakeham wanted the house fitted
+up, you see. It had been her birthplace."
+
+Hermione silently handed him back the slip. She looked so agitated that
+he was instantly struck by it.
+
+"Why are you affected by this?" he cried. "Hermione, Hermione, this is
+something to _you_!"
+
+She roused herself and looked calmly at him, shaking her head.
+
+"You are mistaken," she declared. "It is nothing to me."
+
+"To some one you know, then,--to your sister?"
+
+"How could it be anything to her, if not to me?"
+
+"True; I beg your pardon; but you seem to feel a personal
+disappointment."
+
+"You do not understand me very well," said she, and turned towards the
+door in welcome of her sister, who just then came in. She was followed
+by Doris with a tray on which were heaped masses of black and white
+cherries in bountiful profusion.
+
+"From our own trees," said Emma, as she handed him a plate.
+
+He made his acknowledgments, and leaned forward to take the cherries
+which Doris offered him.
+
+"Sir," whispered that woman, as she pushed into view a little note which
+she held in her hand under the tray, "just read this, and I won't
+disobey you again. It's something you ought to know. For the young
+ladies' sakes do read it, sir."
+
+He was very angry, and cast her a displeased look, but he took the note.
+Hermione was at the other end of the room, and Emma was leaning over her
+aunt, so the action was not seen; but he felt guilty of a discourtesy
+for all that, and ate his cherries with a disturbed mind. Doris, on the
+contrary, looked triumphant, and passed from one to the other with a
+very cheerful smile.
+
+When Frank arrived home he read that note. It was from Doris herself,
+and ran thus:
+
+    "Something has happened to the young ladies. They were to have
+    had new dresses this month, and now they say they must make the
+    old ones do. There is less too for dinner than there was, and if
+    it were not for the fruit on our trees we would not have always
+    enough to eat. But that is not the worst; Miss Emma says I shall
+    have to leave them, as they cannot pay me any longer for my
+    work. As if I would leave them, if I starved! Do, do find out
+    what this means, for it is too much to believe that they are
+    going to be poor with all the rest they have to endure."
+
+Find out what it meant! He knew what it meant; they had sacrificed their
+case, and now they must go hungry, wear old clothes, and possibly do
+their own work. It made him heart-sick; it made him desperate; it made
+him wellnigh forget her look when she said: "Our friendship must not
+grow into love, _must not_, I say, for both our sakes. It would be
+fatal."
+
+He resolved to see Hermione the next morning, and, if possible,
+persuade her to listen to reason, and give up a resolve that endangered
+both her own and her sister's future comfort.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+IN THE NIGHT WATCHES.
+
+
+Meantime in the old house Hermione sat watching Emma as she combed out
+her long hair before the tiny mirror in their bedroom. Her face,
+relieved now from all effort at self-control, betrayed a deep
+discouragement, which deepened its tragic lines and seemed to fill the
+room with gloom. Yet she said nothing till Emma had finished her task
+and looked around, then she exclaimed:
+
+"Another curse has fallen upon us; we might have been rich, but must
+remain poor. Do you think we can bear many more disappointments, Emma?"
+
+"I do not think that I can," murmured Emma, with a pitiful smile. "But
+what do you mean by riches? Gaining our case would not have made us
+rich."
+
+"No."
+
+"Has--has Mr. Etheridge offered himself? Have you had a chance of _that_
+happiness, and refused it?"
+
+Hermione, who had been gazing almost sadly at her sister as she spoke
+the foregoing words, flushed, half angrily, half disdainfully, and
+answered with sufficient bitterness in her voice:
+
+"Could I accept any man's devotion _now_! Could I accept even _his_ if
+it were offered to me? Emma, your memory seems very short, or you have
+never realized the position in which I stand."
+
+Emma, who had crimsoned as painfully as her sister at that one
+emphasized word, which suggested so much to both sisters, did not answer
+for a moment, but when she did her words came with startling
+distinctness.
+
+"You do me wrong; I not only have realized, to the core of my heart,
+your position and what it demands, but I have shared it, as you know,
+and never more than when the question came up as to whether we girls
+could marry with such a shadow hanging over us."
+
+"Emma, what do you mean?" asked Hermione, rising and confronting her
+sister, with wide open, astonished eyes. For Emma's appearance was
+startling, and might well thrill an observer who had never before seen
+her gentleness disturbed by a passion as great as she herself might
+feel.
+
+But Emma, at the first sight of this reflection of her own emotions in
+Hermione's face, calmed her manner, and put a check upon her expression.
+
+"If you do not know," said she, "I had rather not be the one to tell
+you. But never say again that I do not realize your position."
+
+"Emma, Emma," pursued Hermione, without a change of tone or any
+diminution in the agitation of her manner to show that she had heard
+these words, "have _you_ had a lover and I not know it? Did you give up
+that _when_----" The elder sister choked; the younger smiled, but with
+an infinite sadness.
+
+"I should not have spoken of it," said she; "I would not have done so,
+but that I hoped to influence you to look on this affair with different
+eyes. I--I believe you ought to embrace this new hope, Hermione. Do but
+tell him----"
+
+"_Tell him_! that would be a way to gain him surely."
+
+"I do not think it would cause you to lose him; that is, if you could
+assure him that your heart is free to love him as such a man ought to be
+loved."
+
+The question in these words made Hermione blush and turn away; but her
+emotion was nothing to that of the quieter sister, who, after she had
+made this suggestion, stood watching its effect with eyes in which the
+pain and despair of a year seemed at once to flash forth to light.
+
+"I honor him," began Hermione, in a low, broken voice, "but you know it
+was not honor simply that I felt for----"
+
+"Do not speak his name," flashed out Emma. "He--you--do not care for
+each other, or--or--you and I would never be talking as we are doing
+here to-night. I am sure you have forgotten him, Hermione, for all your
+hesitations and efforts to be faithful. I have seen it in your eyes for
+weeks, I have heard it in your voice when you have spoken to this new
+friend. Why then deceive yourself; why let a worn-out memory stand in
+the way of a new joy, a real joy, an unsullied and wholly promising
+happiness?"
+
+"Emma! Emma, what has come to you? You never talked to me like this
+before. Is it the memory of this folly only that stands in the way of
+what you so astonishingly advocate? Can a woman situated as I am, give
+herself up to any hope, any joy?"
+
+"Yes, for the situation will change when you yield yourself once again
+to the natural pleasures of life. I do not believe in the attitude you
+have taken, Hermione; I have never believed in it, yet I have cheerfully
+shared it because, because--you know why; do not let us talk of those
+days."
+
+"You do not know all my provocation," quoth Hermione.
+
+"Perhaps not, but nothing can excuse the sacrifice you are making of
+your life. Consider, Hermione. Why should you? Have you not duties to
+the present, as well as to the past? Should you not think of the long
+years that may lie between this hour and a possible old age, years which
+might be filled with beneficence and love, but which now----"
+
+"Emma, Emma, what are you saying? Are you so tired of sharing my fate
+that you would try to make me traitor to my word, traitor to my
+love----"
+
+"Hush," whispered again Emma, "you do not love _him_. Answer me, if you
+do. Plunge deep into your heart, and say if you feel as you did once; I
+want to hear the words from your lips, but be honest."
+
+"Would it be any credit to me if I did not? Would you think more of me
+if I acknowledged the past was a mistake, and that I wrecked my life for
+a passion which a year's absence could annul."
+
+But the tender Emma was inexorable, and held her sister by the hands
+while she repeated.
+
+"Answer, answer! or I shall take your very refusal for a reply."
+
+But Hermione only drooped her head, and finally drew away her hands.
+
+"You seem to prefer the cause of this new man," she murmured ironically.
+"Perhaps you think he will make the better brother-in-law."
+
+The flush on Emma's cheek spread till it dyed her whole neck.
+
+"I think," she observed gravely, "that Mr. Etheridge is the more devoted
+to you, Hermione. Dr. Sellick--" what did not that name cost her?--"has
+not even looked up at our windows when riding by the house."
+
+Hermione's eye flashed, and she bounded imperiously to her feet.
+
+"And that is why I think that he still remembers. And shall I forget?"
+she murmured more softly, "while he cherishes one thought of grief or
+chagrin over the past?"
+
+Emma, whose head had fallen on her breast, played idly with her long
+hair, and softly drew it across her face.
+
+"If you knew," she murmured, "that he did not cherish one thought such
+as you imagine, would you then open your heart to this new love and the
+brightness in the world and all the hopes which belong to our time of
+life."
+
+"If, if," repeated Hermione, staring at the half-hidden face of her
+sister as at some stranger whom she had found persistent and
+incomprehensible. "I don't know what you mean by your _ifs_. Do you
+think it would add to my content and self-satisfaction to hear that I
+had reared this ghastly prison which I inhabit on a foundation of sand,
+and that the walls in toppling would crash about my ears and destroy me?
+You must have a strange idea of a woman's heart, if you thought it would
+make me any readier to face life if I knew I had sacrificed my all to a
+chimera."
+
+Emma sighed. "Not if it gave you a new hope," she whispered.
+
+"Ah," murmured Hermione, and her face softened for the first time. "I
+dare not think of that," she murmured. "I dare not, Emma; I DARE NOT."
+
+The younger sister, as if answered, threw back her hair and looked at
+Hermione quite brightly.
+
+"You will come to dare in time," said she, and fled from the room like a
+spirit.
+
+When she was gone, Hermione stood still for many minutes; then she
+began quietly to let down her own hair. As the long locks fell curling
+and dark about her shoulders, a dreamier and dreamier spirit came upon
+her, mellowing the light in her half-closed eyes, and bringing such a
+sweet, half-timid, half-longing smile to her lips that she looked the
+embodiment of virginal joy. But the mood did not last long, and ere the
+thick curls were duly parted and arranged for the night, the tears had
+begun to fall, and the sobs to come till she was fain to put out her
+light and hide behind the curtains of her bed the grief and remorse
+which were pressing upon her.
+
+Meanwhile Emma had stolen to her aunt's room, and was kneeling down
+beside her peaceful figure.
+
+"Aunt, dear Aunt," she cried, "tell me what my duty is. Help me to
+decide if Hermione should be told the truth which we have so long kept
+from her."
+
+She knew the old lady could not hear, but she was in the habit of
+speaking to her just as if she could, and often through some subtle
+sympathy between them the sense of her words was understood and answered
+in a way to surprise her.
+
+And in this case Mrs. Lovell seemed to understand, for she kissed Emma
+with great fondness, and then, taking the sweet, troubled, passionate
+face between her two palms, looked at her with such love and sympathy
+that the tears filled Emma's eyes, for all her efforts at self-control.
+
+"Tell her," came forth at last, in the strange, loud tones of the
+perfectly deaf, "and leave the rest to God. You have kept silence, and
+the wound has not healed; now try the truth, and may heaven bless you
+and the two others whom you desire to make happy."
+
+And Emma, rising up, thanked God that he had left them this one blessing
+in their desolation--this true-hearted and tender-souled adviser.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night, as Hermione was tossing in a restless sleep, she suddenly
+became aware of a touch on her shoulder, and, looking up, she saw her
+sister standing before her, with a lighted candle in her hand, and her
+hair streaming about her.
+
+"What is the matter?" she cried, bounding up in terror, for Emma's face
+was livid with its fixed resolve, and wore a look such as Hermione had
+never seen there before.
+
+"Nothing," cried the other, "nothing; only I have something to tell
+you--something which you should have known a long time ago--something
+about which you should never have been deceived. It is this, Hermione.
+It was not you Dr. Sellick wished to marry, but myself." And with the
+words the light was blown out, and Hermione found herself alone.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+THE SECRET OF THE LABORATORY.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+THE BEGINNING OF CHANGES.
+
+
+As Frank went by the house early the next morning on his way to the
+train, he paused and glanced at one of the upper windows, where he had
+once before seen Hermione's face looking out. The blinds were closed,
+but the slats were slightly turned, and through them he thought, but he
+could not be quite sure, he caught the glimpse of a pair of flashing
+eyes. In the hope that this was so, he laid his hand upon the gate and
+then glanced up again, as if asking permission to open it. The blinds
+moved and in another instant fell back, and he saw the face he loved,
+looking very pale but sweet, bending towards him from the clustering
+honeysuckles.
+
+"May I come in," he asked, "just for a few words more? You know we were
+interrupted last night."
+
+She shook her head, and his heart sank; then she seemed to repent her
+decision and half opened her lips as if to speak, but no words came. He
+kept his hand on the gate, and his face grew eloquent.
+
+"You cannot say no," he now pleaded, smiling at the blush that was
+slowly mantling on her cheek. "I may not be here again for weeks, and if
+you do not let me say good-by I shall always think I have displeased
+you, and that will not add to my happiness or peace."
+
+"Wait," came in sudden eagerness from her lips, and he saw her disappear
+from the window and appear, almost before he could realize his own
+relief, in the open door-way before him. "Come in," said she, with the
+first full glad smile he had ever seen on her lips.
+
+But though he bounded up the steps he did not enter the house. Instead
+of that he seized her hand and tried to induce her to come out in the
+open air to him. "No close rooms," said he, "on such a morning as this.
+Come into the poplar-walk, come; let me see you with the wind blowing
+your hair about your cheeks."
+
+"No, no!" burst from her lips in something almost like fright. "Emma
+goes into the garden, but not I. Do not ask me to break the habit of
+months, do not."
+
+But he was determined, tenderly, firmly determined.
+
+"I must," said he; "I must. Your white cheeks and worn face demand the
+freshness of out-door air. I do not say you must go outside the gate,
+but I do say you must feel again what it is to have the poplars rustle
+above your head and the grass close lovingly over your feet. So come,
+Hermione, come, for I will not take no, I will not, even from the lips
+whose business it shall be to command me in everything else."
+
+His eyes entreated her, his hand constrained her; she sought to do
+battle with his will, but her glances fell before the burning ardor of
+his. With a sudden wild heave of her breast, she yielded, and he drew
+her down into the garden and so around to the poplar-walk. As she went
+the roses came out on her cheeks, and she seemed to breathe like a
+creature restored to life.
+
+"Oh, the blue, blue sky!" she cried, "and oh, the hills! I have not seen
+them for a year. As for the poplars, I should love to kiss their old
+boughs, I am so glad to be beneath them once more."
+
+But as she proceeded farther her spirits seemed to droop again, and she
+cast him furtive looks as much as to say:
+
+"Is it right? ought I to be enjoying all this bliss?"
+
+But the smile on his face was so assured, she speedily took courage
+again, and allowed him to lead her to the end of the poplar-walk, far up
+in those regions where his eye had often strayed but his feet never been
+even in fancy. On a certain bench they sat down, and he turned towards
+her a beaming face.
+
+"Now I feel as if you were mine," he cried. "Nothing shall part us after
+this, not even your own words."
+
+But she put her hands out with a meek, deprecating gesture, very unlike
+the imperious one she had indulged in before.
+
+"You must not say that," she cried. "My coming out may have been a
+weakness, but it shall not be followed by what you yourself might come
+to regard as a wrong. I am here, and it was for your pleasure I came,
+but that commits me to nothing and you to nothing, unless it be to the
+momentary delight. Do you hear that bird sing?"
+
+"You are lovely with that flickering sunlight on your face," was all the
+reply he made.
+
+And perhaps he could have made no better, for it gave her a sweet sense
+of helplessness in the presence of this great love, which to a woman who
+had been so long bearing herself up in solitary assertion had all the
+effect of rest and relief.
+
+"You make me feel as if my youth was not quite gone," said she; "but,"
+she added, as his hand stole towards hers, "you have not yet made me
+feel that I must listen to all the promptings of love. There is a gulf
+between me and you across which we cannot shake hands. But we can speak,
+friend, to one another, and that is a pleasure to one who has travelled
+so long in a wilderness alone. Shall we not let that content us, or do
+you wish to risk life and all by attempting more?"
+
+"I wish to risk everything, anything, so as to make you mine."
+
+"You do not know what you are saying. We are talking pure foolishness,"
+was her sudden exclamation, as she leapt to her feet. "Here, in this
+pure air, and in sight of the fields and hills, the narrow, confining
+bands which have held me to the house seem to lose their power and
+partake of the unsubstantiality of a dream. But I know that with my
+recrossing of the threshold they will resume their power again, and I
+shall wonder I could ever talk of freedom or companionship with one who
+does not know the secrets of the house or the shadow which has been cast
+by them upon my life."
+
+"You know them, and yet you would go back," he cried. "I should say the
+wiser course would be to turn away from a place so fatal to your
+happiness and hopes, and, yielding to my entreaties, go with me to the
+city, where we will be married, and----"
+
+"Frank, what a love you have for me! a love which questions nothing, not
+even my past, notwithstanding I say it is that past which separates us
+and makes me the recluse I am."
+
+"You have filled me with trust by the pure look in your eyes," said he.
+"Why should I ask you to harrow up your feelings by telling me what you
+would have told me long ago, if it had not been too painful?"
+
+"You are a great, good man," she cried. "You subdue me who have never
+been subdued before, except by my own passionate temper. I reverence you
+and I--love--you. Do not ask me to say anything more." And the queenly,
+imperious form swayed from side to side, and the wild tears gushed
+forth, and she fled from his side down the poplar-walk, till she came
+within sight of the house, when she paused, gathering up her strength
+till he reached the place where she stood, when she said:
+
+"You are coming again, some time?"
+
+"I am coming again in a week."
+
+"You will find a little packet awaiting you in the place where you stay.
+You will read it before you see me again?"
+
+"I will read it."
+
+"Good-by," said she; and her face in its most beautiful aspect shone on
+him for a moment; then she retreated, and was lost to his view in the
+shrubbery.
+
+As he passed the house on his way to the gate, he saw Doris casting
+looks of delight down the poplar-walk, where her young mistress was
+still straying, and at the same instant caught a hurried glimpse of Mrs.
+Lovell and Emma, leaning from the window above, in joyful recognition of
+the fact that a settled habit had been broken, and that at his
+inducement Hermione had consented to taste again the out-door air.
+
+He was yet in time for the train, for he had calculated on this visit,
+and so made allowances for it. He was therefore on the point of turning
+towards the station, when he saw the figure of a man coming down the
+street, and stopped, amazed. Was it--could it be--yes, it was Hiram
+Huckins. He was dressed in black, and looked decent, almost trim, but
+his air was that of one uncertain of himself, and his face was
+disfigured by an ingratiating leer which Etheridge found almost
+intolerable. He was the first to speak.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Etheridge?" said he, ambling up, and bowing with
+hypocritical meekness. "You didn't expect to see me here, did you? But
+business calls me. My poor, dear sister Harriet is said to have been in
+Marston, and I have come to see if it is true. I do not find her, do
+you?"
+
+The sly, half-audacious, half-deprecating look with which he uttered
+these words irritated Frank beyond endurance.
+
+"No," he rejoined. "Your valuable time will be wasted here. You will
+have to look elsewhere for your _dear_ sister."
+
+"It has taken you a long time to find that out," insinuated the other,
+with his most disagreeable leer. "I suppose, now, you thought till this
+very last night that you would find her in the graveyard or in some of
+these old houses. Else why should you waste _your_ valuable time in a
+place of such mean attractions."
+
+They were standing directly in front of the Cavanagh house and Frank was
+angry enough to lift his hand against him at these words, for the old
+man's eyes--he was not old but he always presented the appearance of
+being so--had wandered meaningly towards the windows above him, as if he
+knew that behind them, instead of in any graveyard, centred the real
+attractions of the place for Frank.
+
+But though a lawyer may have passions, he, as a rule, has learned to
+keep a curb upon them, especially in the presence of one who is likely
+to oppose him.
+
+So bowing with an effort at politeness, young Etheridge acknowledged
+that he had only lately given up his hope, and was about to withdraw in
+his haste to catch the train, when Huckins seized him by the arm with a
+low chuckle and slyly whispered:
+
+"You've been visiting the two pretty hermitesses, eh? Are they nice
+girls? Do they know anything about my sister? You look as if you had
+heard good news somewhere. Was it in there?"
+
+He was eager; he was insinuating; he seemed to hang upon Frank's reply.
+But the lawyer, struck and troubled by this allusion to the women he so
+cherished, on lips he detested beyond any in the world, stood still for
+a moment, looking the indignation he dared not speak.
+
+Huckins took advantage of this silence to speak again, this time with an
+off-hand assurance only less offensive than his significant remarks.
+
+"I know they keep at home and do not go out in the world to hear the
+gossip. But women who keep themselves shut up often know a lot about
+what is going on around them, Mr. Etheridge, and as you have been there
+I thought--"
+
+"Never mind what you thought," burst out Frank, unable to bear his
+insinuations any longer. "Enough that I do not go there to hear anything
+about Harriet Smith. There are other law cases in the world besides
+yours, and other clients besides your sister and her heirs. These young
+ladies, for instance, whom you speak of so freely."
+
+"I am sure," stammered Huckins, with great volubility, and an air of
+joviality which became him as little as the suspicious attitude he had
+hitherto taken, "I never meant to speak with the least disrespect of
+ladies I have never met. Only I was interested you know, naturally
+interested, in anything which might seem to bear upon my own affairs.
+They drag so, don't they, Mr. Etheridge, and I am kept so long out of my
+rights."
+
+"No longer than justice seems to demand, Mr. Huckins; your sister, and
+her heirs, if they exist, have rights also."
+
+"So you say," quoth Huckins, "and I have learned not to quarrel with a
+lawyer. Good-day, Mr. Etheridge, good-day. Hope to hear that some
+decision has been arrived at soon."
+
+"Good-day," growled Frank, and strode rapidly off, determined to return
+to Marston that very night if only to learn what Huckins was up to. But
+before he had gone a dozen steps he came quickly back and seized that
+person by the arm. "Where are you going?" he asked; for Huckins had laid
+his hand on Miss Cavanagh's gate and was about to enter.
+
+"I am going to pay a visit," was the smiling reply. "Is there anything
+wrong in that?"
+
+"I thought you did not know these young ladies--that they were strangers
+to you?"
+
+"So they are, so they are, but I am a man who takes a great interest in
+eccentric persons. I am eccentric myself; so was my sister Cynthia; so I
+may say was Harriet, though how eccentric we have still to find out. If
+the young ladies do not want to see an old man from New York they can
+say so, but I mean to give them the chance. Have you anything to say
+against it?"
+
+"No, except that I think it an unwarrantable intrusion about which you
+had better think twice."
+
+"I have thought," retorted Huckins, with a mild obstinacy that had a
+sinister element in it, "and I can't deny myself the pleasure. Think of
+it! two healthy and beautiful girls under twenty-four who never leave
+the house they live in! That is being more unlike folks than Cynthia and
+myself, who were old and who had a fortune to guard. Besides we did
+leave the house, or rather I did, when there was business to look after
+or food to buy. But they don't go out for anything, I hear, _anything_.
+Mr. Ruthven--he is the minister you know--has given me his card by way
+of introduction; so you see they will have to treat me politely, and
+that means I shall at least see their faces."
+
+His cunning, his satisfaction, and a certain triumph underlying all,
+affected Frank like the hiss of a serpent. But the business awaiting him
+in New York was imperative, and the time remaining to him before the
+train left was barely enough to enable him to reach the station. So
+curbing his disgust and the dread he had of seeing this knave enter
+Hermione's door, he tore himself away and made what haste he could to
+the station. He arrived just as the first whistle of the coming train
+was heard, and owing to a short delay occasioned by the arrival of a
+telegram at the station, he was enabled to write two notes, one to Miss
+Cavanagh and one to Dr. Sellick. These he delivered to Jerry, with
+strict injunctions to deliver them immediately, and as the train moved
+off carrying him back to his duties, he had the satisfaction of seeing
+the lumbering figure of that slow but reliable messenger disappear
+around the curve in the highway which led directly to Miss Cavanagh's
+house.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+A STRANGE VISITOR.
+
+
+Frank's visit and interview with Hermione had this advantage for the
+latter, that it took away some of the embarrassment which her first
+meeting with Emma, after the revelations of the night before, had
+necessarily occasioned. She had breakfasted in her own room, feeling
+that it would be impossible for her to meet her sister's eye, but having
+been led into giving such proof of her preference for Mr. Etheridge, and
+the extent of his influence over her, there could of course be no
+further question of Dr. Sellick, or any need for explanations between
+herself and Emma regarding a past thus shown to be no longer of vital
+interest to her. When, therefore, she came in from the garden and saw
+Emma waiting for her at the side-door, she blushed, but that was all, in
+memory of the past night; and murmuring some petty commonplace, sought
+to pass her and enter again the house which she had not left before in a
+full year.
+
+But Emma, who was bright with a hope she had not felt in months, stopped
+her with a word.
+
+"There is an old man waiting in the parlor who says he wants to see us.
+He sent in this card--it has Dr. Ruthven's name on it--and Doris says he
+seemed very eager and anxious. Can you guess who he can be?"
+
+"No," rejoined Hermione, wondering. "But we can soon see. Our visitors
+are not so numerous that we can afford to slight one." And tripping by
+Emma, she led the way into the parlor.
+
+A slight, meagre, eager-eyed man, clad in black and wearing a
+propitiatory smile on very thin lips, rose as she entered, and bowed
+with an awkward politeness that yet had something of the breeding of a
+gentleman in it.
+
+Hermione did not like his looks, but she advanced cordially enough,
+perhaps because her heart was lighter than usual, and her mind less
+under the strain of one horrible fixed idea than it had been in months.
+
+"How do you do?" said she, and looked at him inquiringly.
+
+Huckins, with another bow, this time in recognition of her unexpected
+beauty and grace, shambled uneasily forward, and said in a hard,
+strained voice which was even more disagreeable than his face:
+
+"I am sure you are very good to receive me, Miss Cavanagh. I--I had a
+great desire to come. Your father----"
+
+She drew back with a gasp.
+
+"My father----" she repeated.
+
+"Was an old friend of mine," he went on, in a wheedling tone, in
+seeming oblivion of the effect his words had had upon her. "Did you
+never hear him speak of Hope, Seth Hope?"
+
+"Never," cried Hermione, panting, and looking appealingly at Emma, who
+had just entered the room.
+
+"Yet we were friends for years," declared the dissimulator, folding his
+hands with a dreary shake of his head.
+
+"For years?" repeated Emma, advancing and surveying him earnestly.
+
+"Our father was a much older man than you, Mr.--Mr. Hope."
+
+"Perhaps, perhaps, I never saw him. But we corresponded for years. Have
+you not come across letters signed by my name, in looking over his
+effects?"
+
+"No," answered Emma, firmly, while Hermione, looking very pale,
+retreated towards the door, where she stopped in mingled distress and
+curiosity.
+
+"Then he must have destroyed them all," declared their visitor. "Some
+people do not keep letters. Yet they were full of information, I assure
+you; full, for it was upon the ever delightful subject of chemistry we
+corresponded, and the letters I wrote him sometimes cost me a week's
+effort to indite."
+
+Emma, who had never met a man like this before, looked at him with
+wide-open eyes. Had Hermione not been there, she would have liked to
+have played with his eccentricities, and asked him numberless questions.
+But with her sister shrinking in the doorway, she dared not encourage
+him to pursue a theme which she perceived to be fraught with the keenest
+suffering for Hermione. So she refrained from showing the distrust which
+she really felt, and motioning the old man to sit down, asked, quietly:
+
+"And was it for these letters you came? If so, I am sorry that none such
+have been found."
+
+"No, no," cried Huckins, with stammering eagerness, as he marked the
+elder sister's suspicious eyes and unencouraging manner. "It was not to
+get them back that I ventured to call upon you, but for the pleasure of
+seeing the house where he lived and did so much wonderful work, and the
+laboratory, if you will be so good. Why has your sister departed?" he
+suddenly inquired, in fretful surprise, pointing to the door where
+Hermione had stood a moment before.
+
+"She probably has duties," observed Emma, in a troubled voice. "And she
+probably was surprised to hear a stranger ask to see a room no one but
+the members of his family have entered since our father's death."
+
+"But I am not a stranger," artfully pursued the cringing Huckins,
+making himself look as benevolent as he could. "I am an admirer, a
+devoted admirer of your remarkable parent, and I could show you
+papers"--but he never did,--"of writing in that same parent's hand, in
+which he describes the long, narrow room, with its shelves full of
+retorts and crucibles, and the table where he used to work, with the
+mystic signs above it, which some said were characters taken from
+cabalistic books, but which he informed me were the new signs he wished
+to introduce into chemistry, as being more comprehensive and less liable
+to misinterpretation than those now in use."
+
+"You do seem to know something about the room," she murmured softly, too
+innocent to realize that the knowledge he showed was such as he could
+have gleaned from any of Mr. Cavanagh's intimate friends.
+
+"But I want to see it with my own eyes. I want to stand in the spot
+where he stood, and drink in the inspiration of his surroundings, before
+I go back to my own great labor."
+
+"Have you a laboratory? Are you a chemist?" asked Emma, interested in
+despite of the dislike his wheedling ways and hypocritical air naturally
+induced.
+
+"Yes, yes, I have a laboratory," said he; "but there is no romance about
+mine; it is just the plain working-room of a hard-working man, while
+his----"
+
+Emma, who had paled at these words almost as much as her sister had done
+at his first speech about her father, recoiled with a look in which the
+wonderment was strangely like fear.
+
+"I cannot show you the room," said she. "You exaggerate your desire to
+see it, as you exaggerate the attainments and the discoveries of my
+father. I must ask you to excuse me," she continued, with a slight
+acknowledgment in which dismissal could be plainly read. "I am very
+busy, and the morning is rapidly flying. If you could come again----"
+
+But here Hermione's full deep tones broke from the open doorway.
+
+"If he wishes to see the place where father worked, let him come; there
+is no reason why we should hide it from one who professes such sympathy
+with our father's pursuits."
+
+Huckins, chuckling, looked at Emma, and then at her sister, and moved
+rapidly towards the door. Emma, who had been taken greatly by surprise
+by her sister's words, followed slowly, showing more and more
+astonishment as Hermione spoke of this place, or that, on their way
+up-stairs, as being the spot where her father's books were kept, or his
+chemicals stored, till they came to the little twisted staircase at the
+top, when she became suddenly silent.
+
+It was now Emma's turn to say:
+
+"This is the entrance to the laboratory. You see it is just as you have
+described it."
+
+Huckins, with a sly leer, stepped into the room, and threw around one
+quick, furtive look which seemed to take in the whole place in an
+instant. It was similar to his description, and yet it probably struck
+him as being very different from the picture he had formed of it in his
+imagination. Long, narrow, illy lighted, and dreary, it offered anything
+but a cheerful appearance, even in the bright July sunshine that sifted
+through the three small windows ranged along its side. At one end was a
+row of shelves extending from the floor to the ceiling, filled with
+jars, chemicals, and apparatus of various kinds. At the other end was a
+table for collecting gases, and beneath each window were more shelves,
+and more chemicals, and more apparatus. A large electric machine perched
+by itself in one corner, gave a grotesque air to that part of the room,
+but the chief impression made upon an observer was one of bareness and
+desolation, as of the husk of something which had departed, leaving a
+smell of death behind. The girls used the room for their dreary midnight
+walks; otherwise it was never entered, except by Doris, who kept it in
+perfect order, as a penance, she was once heard to declare, she having a
+profound dislike to the place, and associating it always, as we have
+before intimated, with some tragic occurrence which she believed to have
+taken place there.
+
+Huckins, after his first quick look, chuckled and rubbed his hands
+together, in well-simulated glee.
+
+"Do I see it?" he cried; "_the room_ where the great Cavanagh thought
+and worked! It is a privilege not easily over-estimated." And he flitted
+from shelf to drawer, from drawer to table, with gusts of enthusiasm
+which made the cold, stern face of Hermione, who had taken up her stand
+in the doorway, harden into an expression of strange defiance.
+
+Emma, less filled with some dark memory, or more swayed by her anxiety
+to fathom his purposes, and read the secret of an intrusion which as yet
+was nothing but a troublous mystery to her, had entered the room with
+him, and stood quietly watching his erratic movements, as if she half
+expected him to abstract something from the hoard of old chemicals or
+collection of formulas above which he hung with such a pretence of
+rapture.
+
+"How good! how fine! how interesting!" broke in shrill ejaculation from
+his lips as he ambled hither and thither. But Emma noticed that his eye
+ever failed to dwell upon what was really choice or unique in the
+collection of her father's apparatus, and that when by chance he touched
+an alembic or lifted a jar, it was with an awkwardness that betrayed an
+unaccustomed hand.
+
+"You do not hold a retort in that way," she finally remarked, going up
+to him and taking the article in question out of his hand. "This is how
+my father was accustomed to handle them," she proceeded, and he, taken
+aback for the instant, blushed and murmured something about her father
+being his superior and she the very apt pupil of a great scholar and a
+very wise man.
+
+"You wanted to see the laboratory, and now you have seen it," quoth
+Hermione from her place by the door. "Is there anything else we can do
+for you?"
+
+The chill, stern tones seemed to rouse him and he turned towards the
+speaker.
+
+"No, no, my dear, no, no. You have been very good." But Emma noticed
+that his eyes still kept roaming here, there, and everywhere while he
+spoke, picking up information as a bird picks up worms.
+
+"What does he want?" thought she, looking anxiously towards her sister.
+
+"You have a very pleasant home," he now remarked, pausing at the head of
+those narrow stairs and peering into the nest of Hermione's own room,
+the door of which stood invitingly open. "Is that why you never leave
+it?" he unexpectedly asked, looking with his foxy eyes from one sister
+to the other.
+
+"I do not think it is necessary for us to answer you," said Emma, while
+Hermione, with a flash in her eye, motioned him imperiously down, saying
+as she slowly followed him:
+
+"Our friends do not consider it wise to touch upon that topic, how much
+more should a stranger hesitate before doing so?"
+
+And he, cowering beneath her commanding look and angry presence, seemed
+to think she was right in this and ventured no more, though his restless
+eyes were never still, and he appeared to count the very banisters as
+his hand slid down the railing, and to take in every worn thread that
+showed itself in the carpet over which his feet shuffled in almost
+undignified haste.
+
+When they were all below, he made one final remark:
+
+"Your father owed me money, but I do not think of pressing my claim. You
+do not look as if you were in a position to satisfy it."
+
+"Ah," exclaimed Emma, thinking she had discovered the motive of his
+visit at last; "that is why you wanted to see the laboratory."
+
+"Partly," he acknowledged with a sly wink, "but not altogether. All
+there is there would not buy up the I. O. U. I hold. I shall have to let
+the matter go with other bad debts I suppose. But three hundred dollars
+is a goodly sum, young ladies, a goodly sum."
+
+Emma, who knew that her father had not been above borrowing money for
+his experiments, looked greatly distressed for a moment, but Hermione,
+who had now taken her usual place as leader, said without attempting to
+disguise the tone of suspicion in her voice:
+
+"Substantiate your claim and present your bill and we will try to pay
+it. We have still a few articles of furniture left."
+
+Huckins, who had never looked more hypocritically insinuating or more
+diabolically alert, exclaimed,
+
+"I can wait, I can wait."
+
+But Hermione, with a grand air and a candid look, answered bitterly and
+at once:
+
+"What we cannot do now we can never do. Our fortunes are not likely to
+increase in the future, so you had better put in your claim at once, if
+you really want your pay."
+
+"You think so?" he began; and his eye, which had been bright before,
+now gleamed with the excitement of a fear allayed. "I----"
+
+But just then the bell rang with a loud twang, and he desisted from
+finishing his sentence.
+
+Emma went to the door and soon came back with a letter which she handed
+to Hermione.
+
+"The man Jerry brought it," she explained, casting a meaning look at her
+sister.
+
+Hermione, with a quick flush, stepped to the window and in the shadow of
+the curtains read her note. It was a simple word of warning.
+
+    DEAR MISS CAVANAGH:
+
+    I met a man at your gate who threatened to go in. Do not receive
+    him, or if you have already done so, distrust every word he has
+    uttered and cut the interview short. He is Hiram Huckins, the
+    man concerning whom I spoke so frankly when we were discussing
+    the will of the Widow Wakeham.
+
+        Yours most truly,
+            FRANK ETHERIDGE.
+
+The flush with which Hermione read these lines was quite gone when she
+turned to survey the intruder, who had forced himself upon her
+confidence and that of her sister by means of a false name. Indeed she
+looked strangely pale and strangely indignant as she met his twinkling
+and restless eye, and, to any one who knew the contents of the note
+which she held, it would seem that her first words must be those of
+angry dismissal.
+
+But instead of these, she first looked at him with some curiosity, and
+then said in even, low, and slightly contemptuous tones:
+
+"Will you not remain and lunch with us, Mr. Huckins?"
+
+At this unexpected utterance of his name he gave a quick start, but soon
+was his cringing self again. Glancing at the letter she held, he
+remarked:
+
+"My dear young lady, I see that Mr. Etheridge has been writing to you.
+Well, there is no harm in that. Now we can shake hands in earnest"; and
+as he held out his wicked, trembling palm, his face was a study for a
+painter.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+TWO CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+That afternoon, as Emma was sitting in her own room, she was startled by
+the unexpected presence of Hermione. As they were not in the habit of
+intruding upon each other above stairs, Emma rose in some surprise. But
+Hermione motioning her back into her chair, fell at her feet in sudden
+abandon, and, laying her head in her sister's lay, gave way to one deep
+sob. Emma, too much astonished to move at this unexpected humiliation of
+one who had never before bent her imperious head in that household,
+looked at the rich black locks scattered over her knees with wonder if
+not with awe.
+
+"Hermione!" she whispered, "Hermione! do not kneel to me, unless it be
+with joy."
+
+But the elder sister, clasping her convulsively around the waist,
+murmured:
+
+"Let me be humble for a moment; let me show that I have something in me
+besides pride, reckless endurance, and determined will. I have not shown
+it enough in the past. I have kept my sufferings to myself, and my
+remorse to myself, and alas! also all my stern recognition of your love
+and unparalleled devotion. I have felt your goodness, oh, I have felt
+it, so much so, at times, that I thought I could not live, ought not to
+live, just because of what I have done to _you_; but I never said
+anything, could not say anything! Yet all the remorse I experienced was
+nothing to what I experience now that I know I was not even loved----"
+
+"Hush," broke in Emma, "let those days be forgotten. I only felt that
+you ought to know the truth, because sweeter prospects are before you,
+and----"
+
+"I understand," murmured Hermione, "you are always the great-hearted,
+unselfishly minded sister. I believe you would actually rejoice to see
+me happy now, even if it did not release you from the position you have
+assumed. But it shall release you; you shall not suffer any longer on my
+account. Even if it is only to give you the opportunity of--of meeting
+with Dr. Sellick, you shall go out of this house to-day. Do you hear me,
+Emma, _to-day_?"
+
+But the ever-gentle, ever-docile Emma rose up at this, quite pale in her
+resolution. "Till you put foot out of the gate I remain this side of
+it," said she. "Nothing can ever alter my determination in this regard."
+
+And Hermione, surveying her with slowly filling eyes, became convinced
+that it would be useless to argue this point, though she made an effort
+to do so by saying with a noble disregard of her own womanly shame which
+in its turn caused Emma's eyes to fill:
+
+"Dr. Sellick has suffered a great wrong, I judge; don't you think you
+owe something to him?"
+
+But Emma shook her head, though she could not prevent a certain wistful
+look from creeping into her face. "Not what I owe to you," said she, and
+then flushed with distress lest her sister should misjudge the meaning
+of her words.
+
+But Hermione was in a rarely generous mood. "But I release you from any
+promise you have made or any obligations you may consider yourself to be
+under. Great heaven! do you think I would hold you to them _now_?"
+
+"I hold myself," cried Emma. "You cannot release me,--except," she
+added, with gentle intimation, "by releasing yourself."
+
+"I cannot release myself," moaned Hermione. "If we all perish I cannot
+release myself. _I_ am a prisoner to this house, but you----"
+
+"We are sister prisoners," interpolated Emma, softly. Then with a sudden
+smile, "I was in hopes that he who led you to break one resolution might
+induce you to break another."
+
+But Hermione, flushing with something of her old fire, cried out
+warmly: "In going out of the house I broke a promise made to myself, but
+in leaving the grounds I should--oh, I cannot tell you what I should do;
+not even you know the full bitterness of my life! It is a secret, locked
+in this shrinking, tortured heart, which it almost breaks, but does not
+quite, or I should not linger in this dreadful world to be a cause of
+woe to those I cherish most."
+
+"But Hermione, Hermione----"
+
+"You think you know what has set a seal on my lips, the gloom on my
+brow, the death in my heart; but you do not, Emma. You know much, but
+not the fatal grief, the irrepressible misery. But you shall know, and
+know soon. I have promised to write out the whole history of my life for
+Mr. Etheridge, and when he has read it you shall read it too. Perhaps
+when you learn what the real horror of this house has been, you may
+appreciate the force of will-power which it has taken for me to remain
+in it."
+
+Emma, who had never suspected anything in the past beyond what she
+herself knew, grew white with fresh dismay. But Hermione, seeing it,
+kissed her, and, speaking more lightly, said: "You kept back one vital
+secret from me in consideration of what you thought the limit of my
+endurance. I have done the same for you under the same consideration.
+Now we will equalize matters, and perhaps--who knows?--happier days may
+come, if Mr. Etheridge is not too much startled by the revelations I
+have to make him, and if Dr. Sellick--do not shrink, Emma--learns some
+magnanimity from his friend and will accept the explanations I shall
+think it my duty to offer him."
+
+But at this suggestion, so unlike any that had ever come from Hermione's
+lips before, the younger sister first stared, and then flung her arms
+around the speaker, with cries of soft deprecation and shame.
+
+"You shall not," she murmured. "Not if I lose him shall he ever know
+why that cruel letter was written. It is enough--it shall be
+enough--that he was dismissed _then_. If he loves me he will try his
+fate again. But I do not think he does love me, and it would be better
+for him that he did not. Would _he_ ever marry a woman who, not even at
+his entreaty, could be induced to cross the limits of her home?"
+
+"Mr. Etheridge should not do it either; but he is so generous--perhaps
+so hopeful! He may not be as much so when he has read what I have to
+write."
+
+"I think he will," said Emma, and then paused, remembering that she did
+not know all that her sister had to relate.
+
+"He would be a man in a thousand then," whispered the once haughty
+Hermione. "A man to worship, to sacrifice all and everything to, that it
+was in one's power to sacrifice."
+
+"He will do what is right," quoth Emma.
+
+Hermione sighed. Was she afraid of the right?
+
+Meantime, in the poplar-walk below, another talk was being held, which,
+if these young girls could have heard it, might have made them feel even
+more bitterly than before, what heavy clouds lay upon any prospect of
+joy which they might secretly cherish. Doris, who was a woman of many
+thoughts, and who just now found full scope for all her ideas in the
+unhappy position of her two dear young ladies, had gone into the open
+air to pick currants and commune with herself as to what more could be
+done to bring them into a proper recognition of their folly in clinging
+to a habit or determination which seemed likely to plunge them into such
+difficulties.
+
+The currant bushes were at the farther end of the garden near the
+termination of the poplar-walk, and when, in one of the pauses of her
+picking, she chanced to look up, she saw advancing towards her down that
+walk the thin, wiry figure of the old man who had taken luncheon with
+the young ladies, and whom they called, in very peculiar tones, she
+thought, Mr. Huckins. He was looking from right to left as he came, and
+his air was one of contemplation or that of a person who was taking in
+the beauties of a scene new to him and not wholly unpleasant.
+
+When he reached the spot where Doris stood eying him with some curiosity
+and not a little distrust, he paused, looked about him, and perceiving
+her, affected some surprise, and stepped briskly to where she was.
+
+"Picking currants?" he observed. "Let me help you. I used to do such
+things when a boy."
+
+Astonished, and not a little gratified at what she chose to consider his
+condescension, Doris smiled. It was a rare thing now for a man to be
+seen in this lonesome old place, and such companionship was not
+altogether disagreeable to Mistress Doris.
+
+Huckins rubbed his hands together in satisfaction at this smile, and
+sidled up to the simpering spinster with a very propitiatory air.
+
+"How nice this all is," he remarked. "So rural, so peaceful, and so
+pleasant. I come from a place where there is no fruit, nor flowers, nor
+young ladies. You must be happy here." And he gave her a look which she
+thought very insinuating.
+
+"Oh, I am happy enough," she conceded, "because I am bound to be happy
+wherever the young ladies are. But I could wish that things were
+different too." And she thought herself very discreet that she had not
+spoken more clearly.
+
+"Things?" he repeated softly.
+
+"Yes, my young ladies have odd ideas; I thought you knew."
+
+He drew nearer to her side, very much nearer, and dropped the currants
+he had plucked gently into her pail.
+
+"I know they have a fixed antipathy to going out, but they will get over
+that."
+
+"Do you think so?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Don't _you_?" he queried, with an innocent look of surprise. He was
+improving in his dissimulation, or else he succeeded better with those
+of whom he had no fear.
+
+"I don't know what to think. Are you an old friend of theirs?" she
+inquired. "You must be, to lunch with them."
+
+"I never saw them before to-day," he returned, "yet I am an old friend.
+Reason that out," he leered.
+
+"You like to puzzle folks," she observed, picking very busily but
+smiling all the while. "Do you give answers with your puzzles?"
+
+"Not to such sharp wits as yours. But how beautiful Miss Cavanagh is.
+Has she always had that scar?"
+
+"Ever since I knew her."
+
+"Pity she should have such a blemish. You like her, don't you, very
+much?"
+
+"I love her."
+
+"And her sister--such a sweet girl!"
+
+"I love them both."
+
+"That is right. I should be sorry to have any one about them who did not
+love them. _I_ love them, or soon shall, very much."
+
+"Are you," Doris inquired, with great inquisitiveness, "going to remain
+in Marston any time?"
+
+"I cannot say," sighed the old man; "I should like to. I should be very
+happy here, but I am afraid the young ladies do not like me well
+enough."
+
+Doris had cherished some such idea herself an hour ago, and had not
+wondered at it then, but now her feelings seemed changed.
+
+"Was it to see them you came to Marston?" said she.
+
+"Merely to see them," he replied.
+
+She was puzzled, but more eager than puzzled, so anxious was she to find
+some one who could control their eccentricities.
+
+"They will treat you politely," she assured him. "They are peculiar
+girls, but they are always polite."
+
+"I am afraid I shall not be satisfied with politeness," he insinuated.
+"I want them to love me, to confide in me. I want to be their friend in
+fact as I have so long been in fancy."
+
+"You are some relative of theirs," she now asserted, "or you knew their
+father well or their mother."
+
+"I wouldn't say no," he replied,--but to which of these three
+intimations, he evidently did not think it worth while to say.
+
+"Then," she declared, "you are the man I want. Mr. Etheridge--that is
+the lawyer from New York who has lately been coming here--does not seem
+to have much confidence in himself or me. But you look as if you might
+do something or suggest something. I mean about getting the young ladies
+to give up their whims."
+
+"Has this Mr.--Mr. Etheridge, did you call him?--been doing their
+business long?"
+
+"I never saw him here till a month ago."
+
+"Ah! a month ago! And do they like him? Do they seem inclined to take
+his advice? Does he press it upon them?"
+
+"I wish I knew. I am only a poor servant, remember, though my bringing
+up was as good almost as theirs. They are kind to me, but I do not sit
+down in the parlor; if I did, I might know something of what is going
+on. I can only judge, you see, by looks."
+
+"And the looks? Come, I have a _great_ interest in the young
+ladies--almost as great as yours. What do their looks say?--I mean since
+this young man came to visit them? He is a young man, didn't you say?"
+
+"Yes, he is young, and so good-looking. I have thought--now don't spill
+the currants, just as we have filled the pail--that he was a little
+sweet on Miss Hermione, and that that was why he came here so often, and
+not because he had business."
+
+"You have?" twitted the old man, almost dancing about her in his sudden
+excitement. "Well, well, that must be seen to. A wedding, eh, a wedding?
+That's what you think is coming?" And Doris could not tell whether it
+was pleasure or alarm that gave so queer a look to his eyes.
+
+"I cannot say--I wish I could," she fervently cried; "then I might hope
+to see a change here; then we might expect to see these two sweet young
+ladies doing like other folks and making life pleasant for themselves
+and every one about them. But Miss Hermione is a girl who would be very
+capable of saying no to a young man if he stood in the way of any
+resolve she had taken. I don't calculate much on her being influenced by
+love, or I would never have bothered you with my troubles. It is fear
+that must control her, or----" Doris paused and looked at him
+knowingly--"or she must be lured out of the house by some cunning
+device."
+
+Huckins, who had been feeling his way up to this point, brightened as
+he noticed the slyness of the smile with which she emphasized this
+insinuation, and from this moment felt more assured. But he said nothing
+as yet to show how he was affected by her words. There was another
+little matter he wanted settled first.
+
+"Do you know," he asked, "why she, and her sister, too, I believe, have
+taken this peculiar freak? Have they ever told you, or have you ever--"
+how close his head got to hers, and how he nodded and peered--"surprised
+their secret?"
+
+Doris shook her head. "All a mystery," she whispered, and began picking
+currants again, that operation having stopped as they got more earnest.
+
+"But it isn't a mystery," he laughed, "why you want to get them out of
+the house just _now_. I know your reason for that, and think you will
+succeed without any device of love or cunning."
+
+"I don't understand you," she protested, puckering her black brows and
+growing very energetic. "I don't want to do it _now_ any more than I
+have for the last twelve months. Only I am getting desperate. I am not
+one who can want a thing and be patient. I _want_ Miss Hermione Cavanagh
+and her sister to laugh and be gay like other girls, and till they give
+up all this nonsense of self-seclusion they never will; and so I say to
+myself that any measures are justifiable that lead to that end. Don't
+you think I am right?"
+
+He smiled warily and took her pail of currants from her hand.
+
+"I think you are the brightest woman and have one of the clearest heads
+I ever knew. I don't remember when I have seen a woman who pleased me so
+well. Shall we be friends? I am only a solitary bachelor, travelling
+hither and thither because I do not know how else to spend my money; but
+I am willing to work for your ends if you are willing to work for mine."
+
+"And what are they?" she simpered, looking very much delighted. Doris
+was not without ambition, and from this moment not without her hopes.
+
+"To make these young ladies trust me so that I may visit them off and on
+while I remain in this place. I thought it was pleasant here before, but
+_now_----" The old fellow finished with a look and a sigh, and Doris'
+subjugation was complete.
+
+Yet she did not let him at this time any further into her plans,
+possibly because she had not formed any. She only talked on more and
+more about her love for the young ladies, and her wonder over their
+conduct, and he, listening for any chance word which might help him in
+his own perplexity, walked back at her side, till they arrived in sight
+of the house, when he gave her the pail and slunk back to come on later
+alone. But a seed was sown at that interview which was destined to bear
+strange fruit; and it is hard telling which felt the most satisfaction
+at the understood compact between them--the hard, selfish, and scheming
+miser, or the weak and obstinate serving-woman, who excused to herself
+the duplicity of her conduct by the plea, true enough as far as it went,
+that she was prompted by love for those she served, and a desire to see
+the two women she admired as bright and happy as their youth and beauty
+demanded.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+SUSPENSE.
+
+
+The letter which Frank sent to Edgar described his encounter with
+Huckins, and expressed a wish that the Doctor would employ some proper
+person to watch his movements and see that he did not make himself
+disagreeable to the Misses Cavanagh, whom he had evidently set himself
+to annoy.
+
+What, then, was Etheridge's surprise to receive on the following day a
+reply from his friend, to the effect that Mr. Huckins had not only
+called upon the young ladies mentioned by him, but had made himself very
+much at home with them, having lunched, dined, and report even said
+breakfasted at their table.
+
+This was startling news to Frank, especially after the letter he had
+written to Hermione, but he restrained himself from returning at once to
+Marston, as he was half tempted to do, and wrote her again, this time
+beseeching her in plain words to have nothing to do with so suspicious a
+person as he knew this Huckins to be, and advised her where to appeal
+for assistance in case this intolerable intruder was not willing to be
+shaken off. This letter brought the following answer:
+
+    DEAR MR. ETHERIDGE:
+
+    Do not be concerned about us. Mr. Huckins will not trouble us
+    unduly. Knowing his character, we are not likely to be misled by
+    him, and it amuses us in our loneliness to have so queer and
+    surprising a person as our guest.
+
+    Aunt Lovell is very sharp and keeps a keen eye upon him. He does
+    not offend us except by his curiosity, but as that is excusable
+    in an old man introduced into a household like ours, we try to
+    make the best of it. When you come yourself we will dismiss the
+    intruder.
+
+        Ever sincerely yours,
+            HERMIONE CAVANAGH.
+
+This letter was put very near Frank's heart, but it did not relieve him
+from his anxiety. On the contrary, it added to his fears, because it
+added to his mystification. What did Huckins want of the Misses
+Cavanagh, and what was the real reason for the indulgence they showed
+him? Was there a secret in their connection which he ought to know? He
+began to hasten his business and plan to leave the city again, this time
+for more than a single night.
+
+Meantime, Dr. Sellick was not without his own secret doubts. Hide it as
+he would, he still cherished the strongest affection for the once
+dimpling, dainty, laughing-eyed Emma. Not a day passed but he had to
+combat a fervent desire to pass her gate, though when he yielded to this
+temptation he went by like an automaton, and never looked to right or
+left unless it was dark night. His was a proud soul and an exacting one.
+His self-esteem had been hurt, and he could not bring himself to make
+even the shadow of an advance towards one who had been the instrument of
+his humiliation. And yet he trembled when he thought of misfortune
+approaching her, and was almost as anxious as Frank about the presence
+in her house of the hypocritical and unprincipled Huckins. Had he
+listened only for a moment to the pleading of his better instincts, he
+would have gone to their door and lent his entreaties to those of Frank
+for a speedy dismissal of their unreliable guest; but the hour had not
+yet come for such a self-betrayal, and so he refrained, even while
+cursing himself for a pride which would not yield even at the impending
+danger of one so passionately beloved.
+
+He however kept a man at watch upon the suspected stranger, a precaution
+which certainly did not amount to much, as the danger, if there was any,
+was not one which a detective stationed outside of the Misses Cavanagh's
+house would be able to avert.
+
+Meanwhile Huckins, who was in his element, grew more insinuating and
+fatherly in his manner, day by day. To him this run of a house in which
+there lurked a mystery worth his penetrating, was a bliss that almost
+vied with that of feeling himself on the road to wealth. He pottered and
+poked about in the laboratory, till there was not a spot in the room or
+an article on the shelves which had not felt the touch of his hand; and
+Hermione and Emma, with what some might have thought a curious disregard
+of their father's belongings, let him do this, merely restricting him
+from approaching their own rooms. Possibly they felt as if some of the
+gloom of the place was lifted by the presence of even this evil-eyed old
+man; and possibly the shadows which were growing around them both, as
+Hermione labored day after day upon the history she was writing for her
+lover, made this and every other circumstance disconnected with the
+important theme they were considering, of little moment to them. However
+that may be, he came and went as he would, and had many sly hours in the
+long, dim laboratory and in the narrow twisted corridors at the back of
+the house, and what was worse and perhaps more disastrous still, on the
+stairs and in the open doorways with Doris, who had learned to toss her
+head and smile very curiously while busying herself in the kitchen, or
+taking those brief minutes of respite abroad, which the duties of the
+place demanded. And so the week passed, and Saturday night came.
+
+It was seven o'clock, and train-time, and the blinds in the Cavanagh
+house guarding the front windows were tipped just a little. Behind one
+of these sat Emma, listening to the restless tread of Hermione pacing
+the floor in the room above. She knew that the all-important letter was
+done, but she could not know its contents, or what their effect would be
+upon the free, light-hearted man whose approach they were expecting. She
+thought she ought to know all that Hermione had been through in the year
+which had passed, yet the wild words uttered by her sister in their late
+memorable interview, had left a doubt in her mind which a week's
+meditations had only served to intensify. Yet the fears to which it had
+given rise were vague, and she kept saying to herself: "There cannot be
+anything worse than I know. Hermione exaggerated when she intimated that
+she had a secret bitterer than that we keep together. She has suffered
+so much she cannot judge. I will hope that all will go right, and that
+Mr. Etheridge will receive her explanations and so make her his
+everlasting debtor. If once she is made to feel that she owes him
+something, she will gradually yield up her resolve and make both him and
+me happy. She will see that some vows are better broken than kept,
+and----"
+
+Here her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of Hermione. The
+latter had not been able to walk off her excitement, and so had come
+down-stairs to bear the moments of suspense with her sister.
+
+"I hope he will not stop," she cried. "I do not feel as if I could see
+him till----"
+
+"You will have to," murmured Emma, "for here he comes." And the next
+moment the ardent, anxious face of the young lawyer appeared at the
+gate, making the whole outside world seem brighter to one pair of eyes
+which watched him.
+
+"He wants to talk about our visitor," declared Hermione. "I cannot talk
+about anything so trivial to-day; so do you see him, and when he rises
+to go, say that Doris will bring a certain packet to his door to-night.
+I will not meet his eyes till that ordeal is passed." And with a gasp
+that showed what this moment was to her, she flew from the room, just as
+Doris' step was heard in the hall on her way to the front door.
+
+"Where is your sister?" were the first words uttered by Frank, as he
+came into the room.
+
+"Upstairs," answered Emma. "She does not feel as if she can see you
+again till everything is clear between you. The letter she promised is
+written, and you shall have it to-night. Then if you wish to come
+again----" her smile completed the sentence.
+
+He took heart at this smile.
+
+"I do not doubt," said he, "that I shall be here very early in the
+morning." And then he glanced all around him.
+
+"Does Huckins still bother you?" he asked.
+
+"Oh," she cried, with some constraint, "we allow him to come here. 'Tis
+the least we can do for one----"
+
+She paused, and seemed to bite off her words.
+
+"Do not let us talk of trivialities," she completed, "till the great
+question of all is settled. To-morrow, if you come, we will speak of
+this visitor of whom you so little approve."
+
+"Very well," he rejoined, with some wistfulness, and turned with his
+usual impetuosity towards the door. "I will go to Dr. Sellick's, then,
+at once, that I may receive your sister's communication the sooner. Tell
+her every moment will be an hour till it is in my hands."
+
+"Doris will carry it to you as soon as it is dark. Had we known you were
+going to stop here, she might have had it ready now. As it is, look for
+it as I have said, and may it bring you no deeper pain than the mystery
+of our seclusion has already done. Hermione has noble qualities, and if
+her temper had never been injured by the accident which befell her in
+her infancy, there might have been no call for Doris' errand to-night."
+
+"I will remember that," said he, and left the house with the confident
+smile of a man who feels it impossible to doubt the woman towards whom
+his heart has gone out in the fullest love.
+
+When the door was shut behind him, Hermione came stealing again
+down-stairs.
+
+"Does he--is he--prepared to receive the letter?" she asked.
+
+Emma nodded. "I promised that it should go as soon as it is dusk."
+
+"Then send Doris to me in half an hour; and do not try to see me again
+to-night. I must bear its long and tedious hours alone." And for a
+second time Hermione disappeared from the room.
+
+In half an hour Doris was sent upstairs. She found Hermione standing in
+the centre of her room with a thick packet in her hand. She was very
+pale and her eyes blazed strangely. As Doris advanced she held out the
+packet with a hand that shook notwithstanding all her efforts to render
+it firm.
+
+"Take this," she said; "carry it to where Mr. Etheridge stays when here,
+and place it in his hands yourself, just as you did a former note I
+entrusted to you."
+
+Doris, with a flush, seized the letter, her face one question, but her
+lips awed from speaking by the expression of her mistress' face.
+
+"You will do what I say?" asked Hermione.
+
+The woman nodded.
+
+"Go then, and do not wait for an answer; there will be none to-night."
+
+Her gesture of dismissal was imperative and Doris turned to go.
+
+But Hermione had one word more to say. "When you come back," she added,
+"come to my door and tap on it three times. By that I shall know you
+have delivered the letter; but you need not come in."
+
+"Very well, Miss," answered the woman, speaking for the first time. And
+as Hermione turned her back, she gave her young mistress one burning,
+inquisitive look and then slid out of the room with her eyes on the
+packet which she almost seemed to devour with her eyes.
+
+As she passed the laboratory door she detected the thin weasel-like face
+of Huckins looking out.
+
+"What is that?" he whispered, pointing eagerly at the packet.
+
+"Be in the highway at Dobbins' corner, and I'll tell you," she slyly
+returned, going softly on her way.
+
+And he, with a chuckle which ought to have sounded through that house
+like a premonition of evil, closed the laboratory door with a careful
+hand, and descending the twisted staircase which led to the hall below,
+prepared to follow out her injunction in his own smooth and sneaking
+way.
+
+"I think I'll spend the evening at the prayer-meeting," he declared,
+looking in at Emma, as he passed the sitting-room door. "I feel the need
+of such comfort now and then. Is there anything I can do for either of
+you up street?"
+
+Emma shook her head; she was glad to be rid of his company for this one
+evening; and he went out of the front door with a quiet, benevolent air
+which may not have imposed on her, but which certainly did on Doris, who
+was watching from the garden to see him go.
+
+They met, as she had suggested, at Dobbins' corner. As it was not quite
+dark, they walked into a shaded and narrow lane where they supposed
+themselves to be free from all observation.
+
+"Now tell me," said he, "what your errand is. That it is important I
+know from the way you look. What is it, good, kind Doris; anything that
+will help us in our plans?"
+
+"Perhaps," said she. "It is a letter for Mr. Etheridge; see how big and
+thick it is. It ought to tell a deal, this letter; it ought to explain
+why she never leaves the house."
+
+The woman's curious excitement, which was made up of curiosity and a
+real desire to know the secret of what affected her two young mistresses
+so closely, was quickly communicated to the scheming, eager old man.
+Taking the packet from her hand, he felt of it with trembling and
+inquisitive fingers, during which operation it would have been hard to
+determine upon which face the desire to break the seal was most marked.
+
+"It may contain papers--law papers," he suggested, his thumb and
+forefinger twitching as they passed over the fastening.
+
+But Doris shook her head.
+
+"No," she declared vivaciously, "there are no law-papers in that
+envelope. She has been writing and writing for a week. It is her secret,
+I tell you--the secret of all their queer doings, and why they stay in
+the house so persistently."
+
+"Then let us surprise that secret," said he. "If we want to help them
+and make them do like other reasonable folks, we must know with what we
+have to contend."
+
+"I am sure we would be justified," she rejoined. "But I am afraid Miss
+Hermione will find us out. Mr. Etheridge will tell her somebody meddled
+with the fastening."
+
+"Let me take the letter to the hotel, and I will make that all right. It
+is not the first----" But here he discreetly paused, remembering that
+Doris was not yet quite ready to receive the full details of his
+history.
+
+"But the time? It will take an hour to open and read all there is
+written here, and Miss Hermione is waiting for me to tell her that I
+have delivered it to Mr. Etheridge."
+
+"Tell her you had other errands. Go to the stores--the neighbors. She
+need never know you delivered this last."
+
+"But if you take it I won't know what is in it, and I want to read it
+myself."
+
+"I will tell you everything she writes. My memory is good, and you shall
+not miss a word."
+
+"But--but----"
+
+"It is your only chance," he insinuated; "the young ladies will never
+tell you themselves."
+
+"I know it; yet it seems a mean thing to do. Can you close the letter so
+that neither he nor they will ever know it has been opened?"
+
+"Trust me," he leered.
+
+"Hurry then; I will be in front of Dr. Sellick's in an hour. Give me the
+letter as you go by, and when I have delivered it, meet me on my way
+back and tell me what she says."
+
+He promised, and hastened with his treasure to the room he still kept
+at the hotel. She watched him as long as he was in sight and then went
+about her own improvised errands. Did she realize that she had just put
+in jeopardy not only her young mistresses' fortunes, but even their
+lives?
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+A DISCOVERY.
+
+
+Frank Etheridge waited a long time that night for the promised
+communication. Darkness came, but no letter; eight o'clock struck, and
+still there was no sign of the dilatory Doris. Naturally impatient, he
+soon found this lengthy waiting intolerable. Edgar was busy in his
+office, or he would have talked to him. The evening paper which he had
+brought from New York had been read long ago, and as for his cigar, it
+lacked flavor and all power to soothe him. In his exasperation he went
+to the book-shelves, and began looking over the numberless volumes
+ranged in neat rows before him. He took out one, glanced at it, and put
+it back; he took out another, without even seeing what its title was,
+looked at it a moment, sighed, and put that back; he took out a third,
+which opened in his hand at the title-page, saw that it was one of those
+old-fashioned volumes, designated _The Keepsake_, and was about to close
+and replace it as he had done the others, when his attention was
+suddenly and forcibly attracted by a name written in fine and delicate
+characters on the margin at the top. It was no other than this:
+
+       HARRIET SMITH
+    Gift of her husband
+      October 3rd 1848
+
+_Harriet Smith!_ Astounded, almost aghast, he ran to Edgar's office with
+the volume.
+
+"Edgar! Edgar!" he cried; "look here! See that name! And the book was in
+your library too. What does it mean? Who was, who is Harriet Smith, that
+you should have her book?"
+
+Dr. Sellick, taken by surprise, stared at the book a minute, then jumped
+to his feet in almost as much excitement as Frank himself.
+
+"I got that book from Hermione Cavanagh years ago; there was a poem in
+it she wanted me to read. I did not know I had the book now. I have
+never even thought of it from that day to this. Harriet Smith! Yes, that
+is the name you want, and they must be able to tell you to whom it
+belongs."
+
+"I believe it; I know it; I remember now that they have always shown an
+interest in the matter. Hermione wanted to read the will, and--Edgar,
+Edgar, can they be the heirs for whom we are searching, and is that why
+Huckins haunts the house and is received by them in plain defiance of my
+entreaties?"
+
+"If they are the heirs they would have been likely to have told you.
+Penniless young girls are not usually backward in claiming property
+which is their due."
+
+"That is certainly true, but this property has been left under a
+condition. I recollect now how disappointed Hermione looked when she
+read the will. Give me the book; I must see her sister or herself at
+once about it." And without heeding the demurs of his more cautious
+friend, Frank plunged from the house and made his way immediately to the
+Cavanagh mansion.
+
+His hasty knock brought Emma to the door. As he encountered her look and
+beheld the sudden and strong agitation under which she labored, he
+realized for the first time that he was returning to the house before
+reading the letter upon which so much depended.
+
+But he was so filled with his new discovery that he gave that idea but a
+thought.
+
+"Miss Cavanagh--Emma," he entreated, "grant me a moment's conversation.
+I have just found this book in Dr. Sellick's library--a book which he
+declares was once given him by your sister--and in it----"
+
+They had entered the parlor by this time and were standing by a table
+upon which burned a lamp----"is a name."
+
+She started, and was bending to look at the words upon which his finger
+rested, when the door opened. Hermione, alarmed and not knowing what to
+think of this unexpected return of her lover so soon, as she supposed,
+after the receipt of her letter, had come down from her room in that
+mood of extreme tension which is induced by an almost unendurable
+suspense.
+
+Frank, who in all his experience of her had never seen her look as she
+did at this moment, fell back from the place where he stood and hastily
+shook his head.
+
+"Don't look like that," he cried, "or you will make me feel I can never
+read your letter."
+
+"And have you not read it?" she demanded, shrinking in her turn till she
+stood on the threshold by which she had entered. "Why then are you here?
+What could have brought you back so soon when you knew----"
+
+"This," he interpolated hastily, holding up the book which he had let
+fall on the table at her entrance. "See! the name of Harriett Smith is
+written in it. Tell me, I pray, why you kept from me so persistently the
+fact that you knew the person to whom the property I hold in trust
+rightfully belongs."
+
+The two girls with a quick glance at each other drooped their heads.
+
+"What was the use?" murmured Emma, "since Harriet Smith is dead and her
+heirs can never claim the property. _We_ are her heirs, Mr. Etheridge;
+Harriet Smith was our mother, married to father thirty-nine years ago
+after a widowhood of only three months. It was never known in this place
+that she had had a former husband or had borne the name of Smith. There
+was so much scandal and unhappiness connected with her first most
+miserable marriage, that she suppressed the facts concerning it as much
+as possible. She was father's wife and that was all that the people
+about here knew."
+
+"I see," said Frank, wondering greatly at this romance in real life.
+
+"But you might have told me," he exclaimed. "When you saw what worriment
+this case was causing me, you might have informed me that I was
+expending my efforts in vain."
+
+"I wished to do so," answered Emma, "but Hermione dreaded the arguments
+and entreaties which would follow."
+
+"I could not bear the thought of them," exclaimed the girl from the
+doorway where she stood, "any more than I can bear the thought now when
+a matter of much more importance to me demands your attention."
+
+"I will go," cried Frank. But it was to the empty doorway he spoke;
+Hermione had vanished with these passionate words.
+
+"She is nearly ill," explained Emma, following him as he made for the
+door. "You must excuse one who has borne so much."
+
+"I do not excuse her," he cried, "I love her." And the look he cast up
+the stairs fully verified this declaration. "That is why I go with half
+on my lips unsaid. To-morrow we will broach the topic again, meanwhile
+beware of Huckins. He means you no good by being here. Had I known his
+connection with you, he should never have entered these doors."
+
+"He is our uncle; our mother's brother."
+
+"He is a scamp who means to have the property which is rightfully your
+due."
+
+"And he will have it, I suppose," she returned. "Hermione has never
+given me a hope that she means to contend with him in this matter."
+
+"Hermione has had no counsellor but her own will. To-morrow she will
+have to do with me. But shut the door on Huckins; promise me you will
+not see him again till after you have seen me."
+
+"I cannot--I know too little what is in that letter."
+
+"Oh, that letter!" he cried, and was gone from the house.
+
+When he arrived at Dr. Sellick's again, he found Doris awaiting him,
+looking very flushed and anxious. She had a shawl drawn around her, and
+she held some bundles under that shawl.
+
+"I hope," she said, "that you did not get impatient, waiting for me. I
+had some errands to do, and while doing them I lost the letter you
+expected and had to go back and look for it. I found it lying under the
+counter in Mr. Davis' store and that is why it is so soiled, but the
+inside is all right, and I can only beg your pardon for the delay."
+
+Drawing the packet from under her shawl, she handed it to the frowning
+lawyer, her heart standing still as she saw him turn it over and over in
+his hand. But his looks if angry were not suspicious, and with a
+relieved nod she was turning to go when he observed:
+
+"I have one word to say to you, Doris. You have told me that you have
+the welfare of the young ladies you serve at heart. Prove this to be so.
+If Mr. Huckins comes to the door to-night, or in the early morning, say
+that Miss Cavanagh is not well and that he had better go to the hotel.
+Do not admit him; _do not even open the door_, unless Miss Cavanagh or
+her sister especially command you to do so. He is not a safe friend for
+them, and I will take the responsibility of whatever you do."
+
+Doris, with wide-stretched eyes and panting breath, paused to collect
+her faculties. A week ago she would have received this intimation
+regarding anybody Mr. Etheridge might choose to mention, with gratitude
+and a certain sense of increased importance. But ambition and the sense
+of being on intimate and secret terms with a man and bachelor who
+boasted of his thousands, had made a change in her weak and cunning
+heart, and she was disposed to doubt the lawyer's judgment of what was
+good for the young ladies and wise for her.
+
+But she did not show her doubt to one whom she had secretly wronged so
+lately; on the contrary she bowed with seeming acquiescence, and saying,
+"Leave me alone to take good care of my young ladies," drew her shawl
+more closely about her and quietly slid from the house.
+
+A man was standing in the shadow of a great elm on the corner.
+
+As she passed, he whispered: "Don't stop, and don't expect to see me
+to-night. There is some one watching me, I am sure. To-morrow, if I can
+I will come."
+
+She had done a wicked and dangerous thing, and she had not learned the
+secret.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON.
+
+
+Frank, being left alone, sat down with the letter Doris had given him.
+These are the words he read:
+
+"DEAR MR. ETHERIDGE:
+
+"I must ask you to walk by my house as early as nine o'clock to-morrow
+morning. If, having read this letter, you still feel ready to meet fate
+at my side, you will enter and tell me so. But if the horror that has
+rested upon my life falls with this reading upon yours, then pass by on
+the other side, and I will understand your verdict and accept it.
+
+"It was at a very early age that I first felt the blight which had
+fallen upon my life with the scar which disfigures one side of my face.
+Such expressions as 'Poor dear! what a pity!'--'She would be very
+beautiful if it were not for that,' make a deep impression upon a
+child's mind, especially if that child has a proud and sensitive nature,
+eager for admiration and shrinking from pity. Emma, who is only a year
+younger than myself, seemed to me quite an enviable being before I knew
+what the word envy meant, or why I felt so hot and angry when the
+neighbors took her up and caressed her, while they only cast looks of
+compassion at me. I hated her and did not know it; I hated the
+neighbors, and I hated the places where they met, and the home where I
+was born. I only loved my mother; perhaps, because she alone never spoke
+of my misfortune, and when she kissed me did not take pains to choose
+that side of my face which was without blemish. O my mother! if she had
+lived! But when I was just fifteen, and was feeling even more keenly
+than ever what it was to have just missed being the beauty of the town,
+she died, and I found myself left with only a stern and cruelly
+abstracted father for guardian, and for companion a sister, who in those
+days was a girl so merry by nature, and so full of play and sport, that
+she was a constant source of vexation to me, who hated mirth, and felt
+aggrieved by a cheerfulness I could not share. These passions of
+jealousy and pride did not lessen with me as I slowly ripened into
+womanhood. All our family have been victims of their own indomitable
+will, and even Emma, gentle as you see her to be now, used to have
+violent gusts of temper when she was crossed in her plans or pleasures.
+I never flashed out into bitter speech as she did, or made a noise when
+I was angry, but I had that slow fire within me which made me perfectly
+inexorable when I had once made up my mind to any course--no one, not
+even my father or my sister, having the least influence over me. And so
+it was that those who knew me began to dread me, even while they were
+forced to acknowledge that I possessed certain merits of heart and
+understanding. For the disappointment which had soured my disposition
+had turned me towards study for relief, and the determination to be
+brilliant, if I could not be beautiful, came with my maturity, and saved
+me, perhaps, from being nothing but a burden to my family and friends.
+
+"It was Mr. Lothrop, the Episcopalian minister, who first gave me this
+turn toward serious pursuits. He was a good man, who had known my
+mother, and after her death he used to come to the house, and finding me
+moping in a corner, while Emma made the room gay with her talk, he would
+draw me out with wonderful stories of women who had become the centre of
+a great society by the brilliance of their attainments and the sparkle
+of their wit. Once he called me beautiful, and when he saw the deep
+flush, which I could not subdue, mantle my cheeks and agitate my whole
+body, he took me very kindly by the hand, and said:
+
+"'Hermione, you have splendid powers. Perhaps God allowed a little
+defect to fall upon your beauty, in order to teach you the value of the
+superior faculties with which you are endowed. You can be a fine, grand
+woman, if you will.'
+
+"Alas! he did not know that one unconscious tribute to my personal
+attractions would just then have gone much farther with me than any
+amount of appreciation for my mental abilities. Yet his words had their
+effect, and from that moment I began to study--not as my father did,
+with an absorbed, passionate devotion to one line of thought; that
+seemed to me narrow and demoralizing, perhaps because almost every
+disappointment or grief incident to those days could be traced to my
+father's abstraction to everything disconnected with his laboratory. If
+I wished to go to the city, or extend my knowledge of the world by
+travel, it was: 'I have an experiment on hand; I cannot leave the
+laboratory.' If I wished a new gown, or a set of books, it was: 'I am
+not rich, and I must use all my spare means in buying the apparatus I
+need, or the chemicals which are necessary to the discoveries I am in
+the way of making.' Yet none of those discoveries or experiments ever
+resulted in anything further than the acquiring on his part of a purely
+local fame for learning. Therefore no special branch for me, but a
+general culture which would fit me to shine in any society it might
+henceforth be my good fortune to enter.
+
+"My father might brood over his books, and bend his back over the retort
+and crucible; my sister might laugh and attract the liking of a crowd of
+foolish heads, but I would be the Sevigny, the Rambouillet of my time,
+and by the eloquence of my conversation and the grace of my manner win
+for myself that superiority among women which nature had designed for
+me, but of which cruel fate had robbed me, even before I knew its worth.
+
+"You will say these are great hopes for a village girl who had never
+travelled beyond her native town, and who knew the great world only
+through the medium of books. But is it not in villages and quiet
+sequestered places that lofty ambitions are born? Is it the city boy who
+becomes the President of our United States, or the city girl who
+startles the world with her talent as poet, artist, or novelist?
+
+"I read, and learned the world, and felt that I knew my place in it.
+When my training should be complete, when I had acquired all that my
+books and the companionship of the best minds in Marston could teach,
+then I would go abroad, and in the civilization of other lands complete
+the education which had now become with me a passion, because in it I
+saw the stepping-stone to the eminence I sought.
+
+"I speak plainly; it is necessary. You must know what was passing in my
+mind during my girlhood's years, or you will not understand me or the
+temptations which befell me. Besides, in writing thus I am preparing
+myself for the revelation of a weakness I have shrunk till now from
+acknowledging. It must be made. I cannot put it off any longer. I must
+speak of Dr. Sellick, and explain if possible what he gradually became
+to me in those lonely and studious years.
+
+"I had known him from a child, but I did not begin to think of him till
+he began to visit our house. He was a student then, and he naturally
+took a great interest in chemistry. My father's laboratory was
+convenient, well-stocked with apparatus, and freely opened to him. To my
+father's laboratory he accordingly came every day when he was in town,
+till it began to be quite a matter of course to see him there.
+
+"I was very busy that summer, and for some time looked upon this only as
+a habit on his part, and so took little heed of his presence. But one
+day, being weary with the philosophy I had been studying, I took from
+the shelves a book of poems, and sitting down in the dimmest corner of
+our stiff old parlor, I began to read some impassioned verses, which,
+before I knew it, roused my imagination and inflamed my heart to a point
+which made it easy for any new romantic impression to be made upon me.
+
+"At this instant fate and my ever-cruel destiny brought into my
+presence Edgar Sellick. He had been like myself hard at work, and had
+become weary, and anxious perhaps for a change, or, as I am now
+compelled to think, eager to talk of one whose very existence I was
+tempted to forget when she was, as then, away from home. He had come
+into the room where I was, and was standing, flushed and handsome, in
+the one bright streak of sunlight that flashed at that moment over the
+floor. I had always liked him, and thought him the only real gentleman
+in town, but something quite new in my experience made my heart swell as
+I met his eyes that day, and though I will not call it love (not now),
+it was something which greatly moved me and made me feel that in the
+gaze and seeming interest of this man I saw the true road to happiness
+and to the only life which would ever really satisfy me. For, let it be
+my excuse, under all my vanity, a vanity greater for the seeming check
+it had received, dwelt an ardent and irrepressible desire for affection,
+such affection as I had never received since my dying mother laid her
+trembling hand upon my head and bade me trust the good God for a
+happiness I had never possessed. My disfigurement owed its deepest sting
+to the fact, never revealed to others before, and scarcely acknowledged
+to myself then, that it stood in the way, as I thought, to my ever being
+passionately beloved. When, therefore, I saw the smile on Dr. Sellick's
+face, and realized that he was looking for me, I rose up with new hopes
+in my heart and a new brightness in my life.
+
+"But we said nothing, he or I, beyond the merest commonplaces, and had
+my powers of observation been as keen then as they are now, since a new
+light has been shed upon those days, I would have perceived that his eye
+did not brighten when it rested upon me, save when some chance mention
+was made of Emma, and of the pleasures she was enjoying abroad. But no
+doubts came to me at that time. Because my heart was warm I took it for
+granted that his was so also, and not dreaming of any other reason for
+his attentions than the natural one of his desiring my society for its
+own sake, I gradually gave myself up to a feeling of which it is shame
+now for me to speak, but which, as it was the origin of all my troubles,
+I must compel myself to acknowledge here in all its force and fervor.
+
+"The fact that he never uttered a word of love or showed me any
+attention beyond that of being constantly at my side, did not serve to
+alarm or even dispirit me. I knew him to have just started upon his
+career as physician, and also knew him to be proud, and was quite
+content to cherish my hopes and look towards a future that had
+unaccountably brightened into something very brilliant indeed.
+
+"It was while matters were in this condition that Emma came home from
+her trip. I remember the occasion well, and how pretty she looked in her
+foreign gowns. You, who have only seen her under a shadow, cannot
+imagine how pleasing she was, fresh from her happy experiences abroad,
+and an ocean trip, which had emphasized the roses on her cheek and the
+brightness in her eyes. But though I saw it all and felt that I could
+never compete with the gaiety which was her charm, I did not feel that
+old sickly jealousy of her winsome ways which once distorted her figure
+in my eyes, nor did I any longer hate her laugh or shrink from her merry
+banter. For I had my own happiness, as I thought, and could afford to be
+lenient towards a gay young thing who had no secret hope like mine to
+fill her heart and make it too rich with joy for idle mirth.
+
+"It was a gay season for humble little Marston, and various picnics
+followed by a ball in Hartford promised festivities enough to keep us
+well alive. I did not care for festivities, but I did care for Dr.
+Sellick, and picnics and balls offered opportunities beyond those given
+by his rather commonplace visits to the house. I therefore looked
+forward to the picnics at the seashore with something like expectancy,
+and as proof of my utter blindness to the real state of affairs, it
+never even entered into my head that it would be the scene of his first
+meeting with Emma after an absence of many months.
+
+"Nor did any behavior on his part at this picnic enlighten me as to his
+true feelings, or the direction in which they ran. He greeted Emma in my
+presence, and the unusual awkwardness with which he took her hand told
+me nothing, though it may have whispered something to her. I only
+noticed that he had the most refined features and the most intellectual
+head of any one present, and was very happy thereat, and disposed to
+accord him an interview if he showed any inclination to draw me away
+from the rest of the merry-makers. But he did not, though he strolled
+several times away by himself; and once I saw him chatting with Emma;
+but this fact made no impression upon me and my Fool's Paradise remained
+still intact.
+
+"But that night on reaching home I felt that something was going wrong.
+Aunt Lovell was then with us, and I saw her cast a glance of dismay upon
+me as I entered the room where she and Emma had been closeted together.
+Emma, too, looked out of sorts, and hardly spoke to me when I passed her
+in the hall. Indeed, that quick temper of which I have already spoken
+was visible in her eyes, and if I had opened my own lips I am sure she
+would have flashed out with some of her bitter speeches. But I was
+ignorant of having given her any cause for anger; so, thinking she was
+jealous of the acquirements which I had made in her absence, and the
+advantages they now gave me in any gathering where cultured people came
+together, I hurried by her in some disdain, and in the quiet of my own
+room regained the equanimity my aunt's look and Emma's manifest
+ill-feeling towards me had for a moment shaken.
+
+"It was the last time I was to encounter anger in that eye. When I met
+her next morning I discovered that some great change had passed over
+her. The high spirits I had always secretly deprecated were gone, and in
+their place behold an indescribable gentleness of manner which has never
+since forsaken her.
+
+"But this was not all; her attitude towards me was different. From
+indifference it had budded into love; and if one can become devoted in a
+night, then was it devotion that she showed in every look and every word
+she bestowed upon me from that day. The occasion for this change I did
+not then know; when I did, a change passed over me also.
+
+"Meantime a grave event took place. I was out walking, and my path took
+me by the church. I mean the one that stands by itself on the top of the
+hill. Perhaps you have been there, perhaps you have not. It is a
+lonesome-looking structure, but it has pleasant surroundings, while the
+view of the sea which you get from its rear is superb. I often used to
+go there, just for the breath of salt-water that seemed to hover about
+the place, and as there was a big flat stone in the very spot most
+favorable for observation, I was accustomed to sit there for hours with
+my book or pencil for company.
+
+"Had Edgar Sellick loved me he would have been acquainted with my
+habits. This is apparent to me now, but then I seemed to see nothing
+beyond my own wishes and hopes. But this does not explain what happened
+to me there. I was sitting on the stone of which I have spoken, and was
+looking at the long line of silver light on the horizon which we call
+the sea, when I suddenly heard voices. Two men were standing on the
+other side of the church, engaged, in all probability, in gazing at the
+landscape, but talking on a subject very remote from what they saw
+before them. I heard their words distinctly. They were these:
+
+"'I tell you she is beautiful.'
+
+"I did not recognize the voice making use of this phrase, but the one
+that answered was well known to me, and its tones went through me like a
+knife.
+
+"'Oh, yes, if you only see one side of her face.'
+
+"They were speaking of me, and the last voice, careless, indifferent,
+almost disdainful as it was, was that of Edgar Sellick.
+
+"I quailed as at a mortal blow, but I did not utter a sound. I do not
+know as I even moved; but that only shows the control a woman
+unconsciously holds over herself. For nothing short of a frenzied scream
+could have voiced the agony I felt, or expressed the sudden revolt which
+took place within me, sickening me at once with life, past, present, and
+future. Not till they had strolled away did I rise and dash down the
+hill into the wood that lies at its foot, but when I felt myself alone
+and well shielded from the view of any chance observer, I groaned again
+and again, and wrung my hands in a misery to which I can do but little
+justice now. I had been thrust so suddenly out of paradise. I had been
+so sure of _his_ regard, _his_ love. The scar which disfigured me in
+other eyes had been, as I thought, no detriment in his. He loved me, and
+saw nothing in me but what was consistent with that love. And now I
+heard him with my own ears speak contemptuously of that scar. All that I
+had hoped, all that I had confided in, was gone from me in an instant,
+and I felt myself toppling into a misery I could neither contemplate nor
+fathom. For an hour I walked the paths of that small wood, communing
+with myself; then I took my resolve. Life, which had brought me nothing
+but pain and humiliation, was not worth living. The hopes I had
+indulged, the love in which I had believed, had proved a mockery, and
+the shame which their destruction brought was worse than death, and so
+to be more shunned than death. I was determined to die.
+
+"The means were ready to my hand. Further on in that very wood I knew of
+a pool. It was a deep, dark, deadly place, as its name of Devil's
+Cauldron betokens, and in it I felt I could most fitly end the life that
+was dear to no one. I began to stray towards that place. As I went I
+thought of home, but with no feelings of longing or compunction. Emma
+might be kind, had been kind for the last day or so, but Emma did not
+love me, would not sacrifice anything for me, would not grieve, save in
+the decent way her sisterhood would naturally require. As for my father,
+he would feel the interruption it would cause in his experiments, but
+that would not last long, and in a few days he would be again in his
+beloved laboratory. No one, not a single being, unless it was dear Aunt
+Lovell, would sincerely mourn me or sigh over the death of the poor girl
+with a scar. Edgar Sellick might raise his eyebrows in some surprise,
+and Edgar Sellick should know what a careless word could do. I had a
+pencil and paper in my pocket, and I meant to use them. He should not go
+through life happy and careless, when a line from me would show him that
+the death of one who had some claims upon his goodness, lay at his door.
+
+"The sight of the dim, dark pool did not frighten me from these
+intentions. I was in that half-maddened state of disgust and shame which
+makes the promise of any relief look inviting and peaceful. I loved the
+depth of that cool, clear water. I saw in it rest, peace, oblivion. Had
+I not had that letter to write I would have tasted that rest and peace,
+and these words would never have come to your eyes. But the few minutes
+I took to write some bitter and incoherent lines to Dr. Sellick saved me
+from the doom I contemplated. Have I reason to be thankful it was so?
+To-morrow morning will tell me.
+
+"The passion which guided my pencil was still in my face when I laid the
+paper down on the bank and placed a stone above it. The eyes which saw
+those evidences of passion were doubtless terrified by them, for as I
+passed to the brink of the pool and leaned over it I felt a frenzied
+grasp on my arm, and turning, I met the look of Emma fixed upon me in
+mortal terror and apprehension.
+
+"'What are you going to do?' she cried. 'Why are you leaning over the
+Devil's Cauldron like that?'
+
+"I had not wished to see her or to say good-by to any one. But now, that
+by some unaccountable chance she had come upon me, in my desperation I
+would give her one kiss before I went to my doom.
+
+"'Emma,' I exclaimed, meeting her look without any sharp sense of shame,
+'life is not as promising for me as it is for you; life is not promising
+for me at all, so I seek to end it.'
+
+"The horror in her eyes deepened. The grasp on my arm became like that
+of a man.
+
+"'You are mad,' she cried. 'You do not know what you are doing. What
+has happened to drive you to a deed like this? I--I thought--' and here
+she stammered and lost for the moment her self-control--'that you seemed
+very happy last night.'
+
+"'I was,' I cried. 'I did not know then what a blighted creature I was.
+I thought some one might be brought to love me, even with this
+frightful, hideous scar on my face. But I know now that I am mistaken;
+that no man will ever overlook this; that I must live a lonely life, a
+suffering life; and I have not the strength or the courage to do so.
+I--I might have been beautiful,' I cried, 'but----'
+
+"Her face, suddenly distorted by the keenest pain, drew my attention,
+even at that moment of immeasurable woe, and made me stop and say in
+less harsh and embittered tones:
+
+"'No one will miss me very much, so do not seek to stop me.'
+
+"Her head fell forward, her eyes sought the ground, but she did not
+loosen her hold on my arm. Instead of that, it tightened till it felt
+like a band of steel.
+
+"'You have left a letter there,' she murmured, allowing her eyes to
+wander fearfully towards it. 'Was it to me? to our father?'
+
+"'No,' I returned.
+
+"She shuddered, but her eyes did not leave the spot. Suddenly her lips
+gave a low cry; she had seen the word _Sellick_.
+
+"'Yes,' I answered in response to what I knew were her thoughts. 'It is
+that traitor who is killing me. He has visited me day by day, he has
+followed me from place to place; he has sought me, smiled upon me, given
+me every token of love save that expressed in words; and now, now I hear
+him, when he does not know I am near, speak disrespectfully of my looks,
+of this scar, as no man who loves, or ever will love, could speak of any
+defect in the woman he has courted.'
+
+"'You did not hear aright,' came passionately from her lips. 'You are
+mistaken. Dr. Sellick could not so far forget himself.'
+
+"'Dr. Sellick can and did. Dr. Sellick has given me a blow for which his
+fine art of healing can find no remedy. Kiss me, Emma, kiss me, dear
+girl, and do not hold me so tight; see, we might tumble into the water
+together.'
+
+"'And if we did,' she gasped, 'it would be better than letting you go
+alone. No, no, Hermione, you shall never plunge into that pool while I
+live to hold you back. Listen to me, listen. Am I nothing to you? Will
+you not live for me? I have been careless, I know, happy in my own hopes
+and pleasures, and thinking too little, oh, much too little, of the
+possible griefs or disappointments of my only sister. But this shall be
+changed; I promise you shall all be changed. I will live for you
+henceforth; we will breathe, work, suffer, enjoy together. No sister
+shall be tenderer, no lover more devoted than I will be to you. If you
+do not marry, then will not I. No pleasure that is denied you shall be
+accepted by me. Only come away from this dark pool; quit casting those
+glances of secret longing into that gruesome water. It is too awful, too
+loathsome a place to swallow so much beauty; for you are beautiful, no
+matter what any one says; so beautiful that it is almost a mercy you
+have some defect, or we should not dare to claim you for our own, you
+are so far above what any of us could hope for or expect.'
+
+"But the bitterness that was in my soul could not be so easily
+exorcised.
+
+"'You are a good girl,' I said, 'but you cannot move me from my
+purpose.' And I tried to disengage myself from her clasp.
+
+"But the young face, the young form which I had hitherto associated only
+with what was gay, mirthful, and frivolous, met me with an aspect which
+impressed even me and made me feel it was no child I had to deal with
+but a woman as strong and in a state of almost as much suffering as
+myself.
+
+"'Hermione,' she cried, 'if you throw yourself into that pool, I shall
+follow you. I will not live ten minutes after you. Do you know why?
+Because I--_I_ caused you that scar which has been the torment of your
+life. It was when we were children--babes, and I have only known it
+since last night. Auntie Lovell told me, in her sympathy for you and her
+desire to make me more sisterly. The knowledge has crushed me, Hermione;
+it has made me hate myself and love you. Nothing I can do now can ever
+atone for what I did then; though I was so young, it was anger that gave
+me strength to deal the blow which has left this indelible mark behind
+it. Isn't it terrible? I the one to blame and you the one to
+suffer!--But there must be no dying, Hermione, no dying, or I shall feel
+myself a murderess. And you do not want to add that horror to my
+remorse, now that I am old enough to feel remorse, and realize your
+suffering. You will be a little merciful and live for my sake if not for
+your own.'
+
+"She was clinging to me, her face white and drawn, upturned towards mine
+with pitiful pleading, but I had no words with which to comfort her, nor
+could I feel as yet any relenting in my fixed purpose. Seeing my unmoved
+look she burst into sobs, then she cried suddenly:
+
+"'I see I must prepare to die too. But not to-day, Hermione. Wait a
+month, just one month, and then if you choose to rush upon your fate, I
+will not seek to deter you, I will simply share it; but not to-day, not
+in this rush of maddened feeling. Life holds too much,--may yet give you
+too much, for any such reckless disregard of its prospects. Give it one
+chance, then, and me one chance--it is all I ask. One month of quiet
+waiting and then--decision.'
+
+"I knew no month would make any difference with me, but her passionate
+pleading began to work upon my feelings.
+
+"'It will be a wretched time for me,' said I, 'a purgatory which I shall
+be glad to escape.'
+
+"'But for my sake,' she murmured, 'for my sake; I am not ready to die
+yet, and your fate--I have said it--shall be mine.'
+
+"'For your sake then,' I cried, and drew back from the dangerous brink
+upon which we had both been standing. 'But do not think,' I added, as we
+paused some few feet away, 'that because I yield now, I will yield then.
+If after a month of trying to live, I find myself unable, I shall not
+consult you, Emma, as to my determination, any more than I shall expect
+you to embrace my doom because in the heat of your present terror you
+have expressed your intention of doing so.'
+
+"'Your fate shall be my fate, as far as I myself can compass it,' she
+reiterated. And I, angry at what I thought to be an unwarrantable
+attempt to put a check upon me, cried out in as bitter a tone as I had
+ever used:
+
+"'So be it,' and turned myself towards home."
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+IN THE LABORATORY.
+
+
+"But Emma, with a careful remembrance of what was due to my better
+nature, stopped to pick up the letter I had left lying under a stone,
+and joining me, placed it in my hand, by which it was soon crumpled up,
+torn, and scattered to the wind. As the last bits blew by us, we both
+sighed and the next minute walked rapidly towards home.
+
+"You will say that all this was experience enough for one day, but fate
+sometimes crowds us with emotions and eventful moments. As we entered
+the house, I saw auntie waiting for us at the top of the first stairs;
+and when she beckoned to Emma only, I was glad--if I could be glad of
+anything--that I was to be left for a few minutes to myself. Turning
+towards a little crooked staircase which leads to that part of the house
+containing my own room and my father's laboratory, I went wearily up,
+feeling as if each step I took dragged a whole weight of woe behind it.
+
+"I was going to my own room, but as I passed the open laboratory door,
+I perceived that the place was empty, and the fancy took me, I know not
+why, to go in. I had never liked the room, it was so unnaturally long,
+so unnaturally dismal, and so connected with the pursuits I had come to
+detest. Now it had an added horror for me. Here Dr. Sellick had been
+accustomed to come, and here was the very chair in which he had sat, and
+the table at which he had worked. Why, then, with all this old and new
+shrinking upon me did I persistently cross the threshold and darken my
+already clouded spirit with the torturing suggestions I found there? I
+do not know. Perhaps my evil spirit lured me on; perhaps--I am beginning
+to believe in a Providence now--God had some good purpose in leading me
+to fresh revelations, though up to this time they have seemed to cause
+me nothing but agony and shame.
+
+"No one was in the room, I say, and I went straight to its middle
+window. Here my father's desk stood, for he used the room for nearly
+every purpose of his life. I did not observe the desk; I did not observe
+anything till I turned to leave; then I caught sight of a letter lying
+on the desk, and stopped as if I had been clutched by an iron hand, for
+it was an open letter, and the signature at the bottom of the sheet was
+that of Edgar Sellick.
+
+"'Can I never escape from that man?' thought I, and turned passionately
+away. But next minute I found myself bending over it, devouring it first
+with my eyes, and then taking it to my heart, for it was an expression
+of love for the daughter of the man to whom it was addressed, and that
+man was my father.
+
+"This language as I now know referred to Emma, and she was under no
+error in regard to it, nor was my father nor my aunt. But I thought it
+referred to me, and as I read on and came upon the sentence in which he
+asked, as I supposed, for my hand and the privilege of offering himself
+to me at the coming ball, I experienced such a revulsion of feeling that
+I lost all memory of the words I had overheard him speak, or attributed
+them to some misunderstanding on my part, which a word or look from him
+could easily explain.
+
+"Life bloomed for me again, and I was happy, madly happy for a few short
+moments. Even the horrible old room I was in seemed cheerful, and I was
+just acknowledging to myself that I should have made a great mistake if
+I had carried out my wicked impulse toward self-destruction, when my
+father came in. He shrank back when he saw me; but I thought nothing of
+that; I did not even wonder why Emma was closeted with aunt. I only
+thought of the coming ball, and the necessity of preparing myself for it
+right royally.
+
+"I had come from the desk, and was crossing the floor to go out. My
+happiness made me turn.
+
+"'Father,' said I, taking what I thought to be an arch advantage of the
+situation; 'may I not have a new dress for the ball?'
+
+"He paused, cast a glance at his desk, and then another at me. He had
+been, though I did not know it, in conversation with Emma and my aunt,
+and was more alive to the matters of the hour than usual. It was
+therefore with some display of severity that he confronted me and said:
+
+"'You are not going to the ball, Hermione.'
+
+"Struck as by a blow, the more severely that it was wholly unexpected, I
+gasped:
+
+"'Not going to the ball when you know what depends upon it? Do you not
+like Dr. Sellick, father?'
+
+"He mumbled something between his lips, and advancing to the desk, took
+up the letter which he thus knew I had read, and ostentatiously folded
+it.
+
+"'I like Dr. Sellick well enough,' was his reply, 'but I do not approve
+of balls, and desire you to keep away from them.'
+
+"'But you said we might go,' I persisted, suspecting nothing, seeing
+nothing in this but a parent's unreasonable and arbitrary display of
+power. 'Why have you changed your mind? Is it because Dr. Sellick has
+fixed upon that time for making me the offer of his hand?'
+
+"'Perhaps,' his dry lips said.
+
+"Angry as I had never been in all my life, I tried to speak, and could
+not. Had I escaped suicide to have my hopes flung in this wanton way
+again to the ground, and for no reason that I or any one else could
+see?'
+
+"'But you acknowledge,' I managed at last to stammer, 'that you like
+him.'
+
+"'That is not saying I want him for a son-in-law.'
+
+"'Whom do you want?' I cried. 'Is there any one else in town superior to
+him in wit or breeding? If he loves me----'
+
+"My father's lip curled.
+
+"'He says he does,' I flashed out fiercely.
+
+"'You should not have read my letters,' was all my father replied.
+
+"I was baffled, exasperated, at my wits' end; all the more that I saw
+his eye roaming impatiently towards the pneumatic trough where some
+hydrogen gas was collecting for use.
+
+"'Father, father,' I cried, 'be frank to me. What are your objections to
+Dr. Sellick? He is your friend; he works with you; he is promising in
+his profession; he has every qualification but that of wealth----'
+
+"'That is enough,' broke in my father.
+
+"I looked at him in dismay and shrank back. How could I know he was
+honestly trying to save me from a grief and shame they all thought me
+unequal to meeting. I saw nothing but his cold smile, heard nothing but
+his harsh words.
+
+"'You are cruel; you are heartless,' burst from me in a rage. 'You never
+have shown the least signs of a mercenary spirit before, and now you
+make Dr. Sellick's lack of money an excuse for breaking my heart.'
+
+"'Hermione,' my father slowly rejoined, 'you have a frightful temper.
+You had better keep down the exhibitions of it when you are in this
+room.'
+
+"'This room!' I repeated, almost beside myself. 'This grave rather of
+every gentle feeling and tender thought which a father should have
+towards a most unfortunate child. If you loved me but half as well as
+you love these old jars----'
+
+"But here his face, usually mild in its abstraction, turned so pale and
+hard that I was frightened at what I had said.
+
+"'Hermione,' he cried, 'there is no use trying to show you any
+consideration. Know the truth then; know that----'
+
+"Why did he not go on? Why was he not allowed to tell me what I may have
+been but little fitted to hear, but which if I had heard it at that time
+would have saved me from many grave and fatal mistakes. I think he would
+have spoken; I think he meant to tell me that Dr. Sellick's offer was
+for Emma, and not for me, but Emma herself appeared just then at the
+door, and though I did not detect the gesture she made, I gather that it
+was one of entreaty from the way he paused and bit his lip.
+
+"'It is useless to talk,' he exclaimed. 'I have said that you are to
+stay home from the ball. I also say that you are not to accept or refuse
+Dr. Sellick's addresses. I will answer his letter, and it will not be
+one of acceptance.'
+
+"Why did I not yield to his will and say nothing? When I saw how
+everything was against me, why did I not succumb to circumstances, and
+cease to maintain a struggle I knew then to be useless? Because it was
+not in my nature to do so; because Providence had given me an
+indomitable will which had never been roused into its utmost action till
+now. Drawing myself up till I felt that I was taller than he, I advanced
+with all the fury of suppressed rage, and quietly said the fatal words
+which, once uttered, I never knew how to recall:
+
+"'If you play the tyrant, I will not play the part of submissive slave.
+Keep me here if you will; restrain me from going where my fancy and my
+desires lead, and I will obey you. But, father, if you do this, if you
+do not allow me to go to the ball, meet Dr. Sellick, and accept his
+offer, then mark me, I will never go out of this house again. Where you
+keep me I will stay till I am carried out a corpse, and no one and
+nothing shall ever make me change my mind.'
+
+"He stared, laughed, then walked away to his pneumatic trough. 'Suit
+yourself about that,' said he, 'I have nothing to do with your whims.'
+Probably he thought I was raving and would forget my words before the
+day was out.
+
+"But there was another person present who knew me better, and I only
+realized what I had done when I beheld Emma's slight body lying
+insensible at my feet."
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+STEEL MEETS STEEL.
+
+
+Up to this point Frank had read with an absorption which precluded the
+receiving of all outward impressions. But the secret reached, he drew a
+long breath and became suddenly conscious of a lugubrious sound breaking
+in upon the silence with a gloomy iteration which was anything but
+cheering.
+
+The fog-horn was blowing out on Dog Island.
+
+"I could have done without that accompaniment," thought he, glancing at
+the sheets still before him. "It gives me a sense of doom."
+
+But the fog was thick on the coast and the horn kept on blowing.
+
+Frank took up the remaining sheets.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Life for me was now at an end indeed, and not for me only, but for
+Emma. I had not meant to involve her in my fate. I had forgotten her
+promise, _forgotten_. But when I saw her lying there I remembered, and a
+sharp pang pierced me for all my devouring rage. But I did not recall my
+words, I could not. I had uttered them with a full sense of what they
+meant to me, and the scorn with which they were received only deepened
+my purpose to keep the threat I had made. Can you understand such a
+disposition, and can you continue to love the possessor of it?
+
+"My father, who was shocked at Emma's fall, knowing better than I did
+perhaps the real misery which lay behind it, cast me a look which did
+not tend to soften my obduracy, and advanced to pick her up. When he had
+carried her to her own room, I went proudly to mine, and such was the
+depth of my anger and the obstinate nature of my will that I really felt
+better able to face the future now that I had put myself into a position
+requiring pride and purpose to sustain it. But I did feel some relenting
+when I next saw Emma--such a change was visible in her manner. Meekness
+had taken the place of the merriment which once made the house to ring,
+and the eye which once sparkled now showed sadness and concern. I did
+not, however suspect she had given up anything but freedom, and though
+this was much, as I very soon began to find, I was not yet by any means
+so affected by her devotion, that I could do more than beg her to
+reconsider her own determination and break a promise from which I would
+be only too happy to release her.
+
+"But the answer with which she always met my remonstrances was, 'Your
+fate shall be my fate. When it becomes unbearable to us both you will
+release me by releasing yourself.' Which answer always hardened me
+again, for I did not wish to be forced to think that the breaking up of
+our seclusion rested with me, or that anything but a relenting on my
+father's part could make any change in my conduct.
+
+"Meanwhile that father maintained towards me an air of the utmost
+indifference. He worked at his experiments as usual, came and went
+through the sombre house, which was unrelieved now by Emma's once bright
+sallies and irrepressible laughter, and made no sign that he saw any
+difference in it or us. Aunt Lovell alone showed sympathy, and when she
+saw that sympathy accomplished nothing, tried first persuasion and then
+argument.
+
+"But she had iron and steel to deal with and she soon ceased her gentle
+efforts, and as the time of her visit was drawing to a close, returned
+again to those gentle expressions of silent sympathy more natural to her
+nature; and so the first week passed.
+
+"We had determined, Emma and I, that no one beside our four selves
+should ever know the secret of our strange behavior. Neighbors might
+guess, gossips might discuss it, but no one should ever know why we no
+longer showed ourselves in the street, went to any of the social
+gatherings of the place, or attended the church from which we had never
+before been absent. When, therefore, the ball came off and we were not
+seen there, many were the questions asked, and many were the surmises
+uttered, but we did not betray our secret, nor was it for some time
+after this that the people about us awoke to the fact that we no longer
+left our home.
+
+"What happened when this fact was fully realized, I will not pause to
+relate, for matters of a much more serious nature press upon me and I
+must now speak of the bitter and terrible struggle which gradually awoke
+between my father and myself. He had as I have already related, shown
+nothing at first but indifference, but after the first week had passed
+he suddenly seemed to realize that I meant what I said. The result was a
+conflict between us from the effects of which I am still suffering.
+
+"The first intimation I received of his determination to make me break
+my word came on a Sunday morning. He had been in his room dressing for
+church, and when he came out he rapped at my door and asked if I were
+ready to go with him.
+
+"Naturally I flung wide the door and let him see my wrathful figure in
+its morning dress.
+
+"'Can you ask,' I cried, 'when you yourself have made it impossible for
+me to enjoy anything outside of this house, even the breath of fresh air
+to which all are entitled?'
+
+"He looked as if he would like to strike me, but he did not--only
+smiled. If I could have known all that lay under that smile, or been
+able to fathom from what I knew of my own stubborn nature, the terrible
+depths which its sarcasm barely suggested!
+
+"'You would be a fool if you were not so wicked,' was all he said, and
+shuffled away to my sister's door.
+
+"In a few minutes he came back.
+
+"'Hermione,' he cried, 'put on your hat and come directly with me to
+church.'
+
+"I simply looked at him.
+
+"'Do you hear?' he exclaimed, stepping into the room and shutting the
+door after him. 'I have had enough of this nonsense, and to-day you go
+out with me to church or you never shall call me father again.'
+
+"'Have you been a father to me?' I asked.
+
+"He shook and quivered and was a picture of rage. I remembered as I
+looked at him, thinking, 'Behold the source of my own temper,' but I
+said nothing, and was in no other way affected by what I saw.
+
+"'I have been such a father to you as your folly and blindness
+deserved,' he exclaimed. 'Should I continue to treat you according to
+your deserts, I would tell you what would lay you in shame at my feet.
+But I have promised to be silent, and silent will I be, not out of
+consideration for you, but because your punishment will some day be the
+greater. Will you give up this whim and go with me, and so let your
+sister go also, or will you not?'
+
+"'I will not.'
+
+"He showed a sudden change of manner. 'I will ask you the same question
+next Sunday,' said he, and left my presence with his old air of
+indifference and absorption. No subject disconnected with his work could
+rouse more than a temporary passion in him.
+
+"He kept his word. Every Sunday morning he came on the same errand to
+my door, and every Sunday he went forth alone. During the week days he
+did not trouble me. Indeed, I do not know as he thought of me then, or
+even of Emma, who had always been dearer to him than I. He was engaged
+on some new experiment, some vital discovery that filled him with
+enthusiasm and made every moment passed out of his laboratory a trial
+and a loss to him. He ate that he might work, he slept that he might
+gather new strength and inspiration for the next day. If visitors came
+he refused to see them; the one visitor who could have assisted him at
+the retort and crucible had been denied the door, and any other was a
+hindrance. Our troubles, our cares, our schemes, or our attempts to
+supply the table and dress ourselves upon the few and fewer dollars he
+now allowed us, sank into insignificance before the one idea with which
+he was engrossed. I do not think he even knew when we ceased having meat
+for dinner. That Emma was growing pale and I desperate did not attract
+his attention as much as a speck of dust upon a favorite jar or a crack
+in one of his miserable tubes.
+
+"That this deep absorption of his was real and not assumed was made
+evident to me the first Sunday morning he forgot to come to my door. It
+was a relief not to have to go through the usual formula, but it alarmed
+me too. I was afraid I was to be allowed to go my own way unhindered,
+and I was beginning to feel a softness towards Emma and a longing for
+the life of the world, which made me anxious for some excuse to break a
+resolution which was entailing upon me so much more suffering than I had
+anticipated. Indeed, I think if my father had persisted in his practice
+and come but two or three Sunday mornings more to my door, that my pride
+would have yielded at last, and my feet in spite of me have followed him
+out of a house that, since it had become my prison, had become more than
+ever hateful to me. But he stopped just as a crisis was taking place in
+my feelings, and my heart hardened again. Before it could experience
+again the softening effects of Emma's uncomplaining presence the news
+came that Dr. Sellick had left the town, and my motive for quitting the
+house was taken from me. Henceforth I felt no more life or hope or
+ambition than if I had been an automaton.
+
+"This mood received one day a startling interruption. As I was sitting
+in my room with a book in my hand I felt too listless to read, the door
+opened, and my father stood before me. As it was weeks since he had
+appeared on a Sunday morning and months since he had showed himself
+there on a week day, I was startled, especially as his expression was
+more eager and impatient than I had ever seen it except when he was
+leaning over his laboratory table. Was his heart touched at last? Had he
+good news for me, or was he going to show his fatherhood once more by
+proffering me an invitation to go out with him in a way which my pride
+would allow me to accept? I rose in a state of trembling agitation, and
+made up my mind that if he spoke kindly I would break the hideous bonds
+which held me and follow him quickly into the street.
+
+"But the words which fell from his lips drove every tender impulse back
+into my heart.
+
+"'Have you any jewels, Hermione? I think I gave your mother some pearls
+when we were married. Have you them? I want them if you have.'
+
+"The revulsion of feeling was too keen. Quivering with disappointment, I
+cried out, bitterly:
+
+"'What to do? To give us bread? We have not had any too much of it
+lately.'
+
+"He stared, but did not seem to take in my words.
+
+"'Fetch the pearls,' he cried; 'I cannot afford to waste time like this;
+my experiments will suffer.'
+
+"'And have you no eye, no heart,' I asked, 'for the sufferings of your
+daughters? With no motive but an arbitrary love of power, you robbed me
+of my happiness. Now you want my jewels; the one treasure I have left
+either in the way of value, or as a remembrance of the mother who loved
+me.'
+
+"Of all this he heard but one word.
+
+"'Are they valuable?' he asked. 'I had hoped so, but I did not know. Get
+them, child, get them. The discovery upon which my fame may rest will
+yet be made.'
+
+"'Father, father, you want to sell them,' I screamed. 'My mother's
+jewels; my dead mother's jewels!'
+
+"He looked at me; this protest had succeeded in entering his ears, and
+his eye, which had been simply eager, became all at once dangerous.
+
+"'I do not care whose they were,' he hissed, 'so long as they are now
+mine. It is money I want, and money I will have, and if they will get it
+for me you had better be thankful. Otherwise I shall have to find some
+other way to raise it.'
+
+"I was cowed; he did not say what other way, but I knew by his look I
+had better not drive him into it, so I went to the place where I kept
+these sacred relics, and taking them out, laid them in his trembling,
+outstretched hand.
+
+"'Are these all?' he asked. And I wondered, for he had never shown the
+least shrewdness in any matter connected with money before.
+
+"'All but a trivial little locket which Emma wears,' said I.
+
+"'Is it worth much?'
+
+"'Scarcely five dollars,' I returned.
+
+"'Five dollars would buy the bit of platinum I want,' he muttered. But
+he did not ask for the locket, for I saw it on Emma's neck the next day.
+
+"This was the beginning of a fresh struggle. My father begrudged us
+everything: the food we ate; the plain, almost homely, clothes we wore.
+He himself wellnigh starved his own body, and when in the midst of an
+experiment, his most valuable retort broke in his hand, you could have
+heard his shriek of dismay all over the house. The following Sunday he
+did not go to church; he no longer had a coat to wear; he had sold his
+only broadcloth suit to a wandering pedlar.
+
+"Our next shock was the dismissal of the man who had always kept our
+garden in order. Doris would have been sent away also, but that father
+knew this would mean a disorder in the household which might entail
+interruption in his labors. He did not dare to leave himself to the
+tender mercies of his daughters. But her pay was stopped.
+
+"Meanwhile his discovery delayed. It was money that he needed, he said,
+more money, much more money. He began to sell his books. In the midst of
+this a stranger came to visit him, and now the real story of my misery
+begins."
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+A GROWING HORROR.
+
+
+"There are some men who fill you from the beginning with a feeling of
+revulsion. Such a one was Antony Harding. When he came into the parlor
+where I sat, I felt it difficult to advance and greet him with the
+necessary formalities, so forcibly did I shrink from his glance, his
+smile, his bow of easy assurance. Not that he was ugly of feature, or
+possessed of any very distinguishing marks in face or form to render him
+personally repulsive. He was what some might have called good-looking,
+and many others a gentlemanly-appearing man. But to me he was simply
+revolting, and I could not then or now tell why, for, as far as I know,
+he has never done anything incompatible with his standing as a gentleman
+and a man of family and wealth.
+
+"He had some claim upon my father, and desired very much to see him. I,
+who could not dispute that claim, was going to call my father, when Mr.
+Harding stopped me, thinking, I really believe, that he would not see me
+again, and I was forced, greatly against my will, to stand and answer
+some half-dozen innocent enough questions, while his eyes roamed over my
+features and took in the scar I turned towards him as a sort of defence.
+Then he let me go, but not before I saw in him the beginning of that
+fever which made me for a while hate the very name of love.
+
+"With a sense of disgust quite new to me, I rushed from the room to the
+laboratory. The name by which he had introduced himself was a strange
+one to me, and I had no idea my father would see him. But as soon as I
+uttered the word Harding, the impatience with which he always met any
+interruption gave way to a sudden and irresistible joy, and, jumping up
+from his seat, he cried:
+
+"'Show him up! show him up. He is a rich man and interested in
+chemistry. He cannot but foresee the fame which awaits the man who
+brings to light the discovery I am seeking.'
+
+"'He says he has some claim on you,' I murmured, anything but pleased at
+this prospect of seeing a man whose presence I so disliked, inveigled
+into matters which might demand his reappearance in the house.
+
+"'Claims? claims? Perhaps he has; I cannot remember. But send him up; I
+shall soon make him forget any claims he may have.'
+
+"I did as my father bade me. I sent the smiling, dapper, disagreeably
+attentive man to the laboratory, and when this was done, went to the
+window and threw it up with some vague idea of cleansing the room from
+an influence which stifled me.
+
+"You may imagine then with what a sense of apprehension I observed that
+my father fairly glowed with delight when he came to the supper-table.
+From being the half-sullen, half-oblivious companion who had lately
+chilled our board and made it the scene of anything but cheer or
+comfort, he had brightened at once into a garrulous old man, ready with
+jests and full of condescending speeches in regard to his great
+experiments. Emma, to whom I had said nothing, looked her innocent
+pleasure at this, and both of us started in amazement when he suddenly
+turned towards me, and surveyed me with something like interest and
+pleasurable curiosity.
+
+"'Why do you look at me like that?' I could not help saying. 'I should
+think you had never seen me before, father.'
+
+"'Perhaps I never have,' he laughed. Then quite seriously: 'I was
+looking to see if you were as handsome as Mr. Harding said you were. He
+told me he had never seen so beautiful a woman in his life.'
+
+"I was shocked; more than that, I was terrified; I half-rose from the
+table, and forgetting everything else which made my life a burden to me,
+I had some wild idea of rushing from the house, from the town, anywhere
+to escape the purpose I perceived forming itself in my father's mind.
+
+"'Father,' I cried, with a trembling in my tones that was not common to
+them, even in the moments of my greatest displeasure; 'I hate that man,
+and abominate the very idea of his presuming to admire me. Do not ever
+mention him to me again. It makes my very soul turn sick.'
+
+"It was an unwise speech; it was the unwisest speech I could have made.
+I felt this to be so the moment I had spoken, and stole a look of secret
+dismay at Emma, who sat quite still and helpless, gazing, in silent
+consternation, from my father to myself.
+
+"'You will hate no one who can help me perfect my experiments,' he
+retorted. 'If I command you to do so, you must even love him, though we
+have not got so far as that yet.'
+
+"'I will never love anybody again,' I answered bitterly. 'And I would
+not love this man if your discoveries and my own life even hung upon
+it.'
+
+"'You would not?' He was livid now. 'Well, we shall see. He is coming
+here to dinner to-morrow, and if you dare to show him anything but the
+respect due to an honored guest you will live to rue it as you have
+never rued anything yet.'
+
+"Threats that are idle on some lips are anything but idle on ours, as I
+think you have already begun to perceive. I therefore turned pale and
+said no more, but all night the tormenting terror was upon me, and when
+the next day came I was but little fitted to sustain the reputation for
+beauty which I had so unfortunately earned from a distasteful man's lips
+the day before.
+
+"But Antony Harding was not one to easily change his first impressions.
+He had made up his mind that I was beautiful, and he kept to that
+opinion to the last. I had dressed myself in my most expensive but least
+becoming gown, and I wore my hair in a way to shock the taste of most
+men. But I saw from the first moment that his eyes fell on my face that
+this made no difference to him, and that I must take other means to
+disillusionize him. So then I resorted to a display of stupidity. I did
+not talk, and looked, if I looked at all, as if I did not understand.
+But he had seen glimpses of brightness in me the day before, and this
+ruse succeeded no better than the other. He even acted as if he admired
+me more as a breathing, sullen image than as a living, combative woman.
+
+"My father, who watched us as he never had watched anything before but
+rising bubbles of gas or accumulating crystals, did not show the
+displeasure I feared, possibly because he saw that I was failing in all
+my endeavors; and when the meal over, he led the way to the parlor, he
+even smiled upon me in a not altogether unfriendly way. I felt a sinking
+of the heart when I saw that smile. Better to me were his frowns, for
+that smile told me that, love or no love, liking or no liking, I was to
+be made the bait to win this man's money for the uses of chemistry.
+
+"Walking steadfastly into the parlor, I met the stranger's admiring eye.
+
+"'You would not think,' I remarked, 'that my life at present was
+enclosed within these four walls.'
+
+"It was the first sentence I had voluntarily addressed him, and it must
+have struck him as a very peculiar one.
+
+"'I do not understand what you mean,' he returned, with that unctuous
+smile which to me was so detestable. 'Something interesting, I have no
+doubt.'
+
+"'Very interesting,' I dryly rejoined. 'I have taken a vow never to
+leave this house, and I mean to keep it.'
+
+"He stared at me now in some apprehension, and my heart gave a bound of
+delight. I had frightened him. He thought I was demented.
+
+"My father, seeing his look of astonishment, but not knowing what I had
+said, here advanced and unconsciously made matters worse by remarking,
+with an effort at jocularity:
+
+"'Don't mind what Hermione says; for a smart girl and a good one, she
+sometimes talks very peculiarly.'
+
+"'I should think so,' my companion's manner seemed to assert, but he
+gave a sudden laugh, and made some observation which I scarcely heard in
+my fierce determination to end this matter at once.
+
+"'Do you not think,' I persisted, 'that a woman who has doomed herself
+to perpetual seclusion has a right to be peculiar?'
+
+"'A woman of such beauty possesses most any rights she chooses to
+assert,' was his somewhat lame reply. He had evidently received a shock,
+and was greatly embarrassed.
+
+"'I laughed low to myself, but my father, comprehending as in a flash
+what I was attempting, turned livid and made me a threatening gesture.'
+
+"'I fear,' said he, 'that you will have to excuse my daughter for
+to-night. The misfortune which has befallen her has soured her temper,
+and this is not one of her amiable days.'
+
+"I made a curtsey deep as my disdain. 'I leave you to the enjoyment of
+your criticisms,' I exclaimed, and fled from the room in a flutter of
+mingled satisfaction and fear.
+
+"For though I had saved myself from any possible persecution on the part
+of Mr. Harding, I had done it at the cost of any possible reconciliation
+between my father and myself. And I was not yet so hardened that I could
+contemplate years of such life as I was then living without a pang of
+dread. Alas! if I had known what I was indeed preparing for myself, and
+how much worse a future dwelt in his mind than any I had contemplated!
+
+"Emma, who had been a silent and unobtrusive witness to what had
+occurred, soon followed me to my room.
+
+"'What have you done?' she asked. 'Why speak so to a stranger?'
+
+"'Father wants me to like him; father wants me to accept his attentions,
+and I detest him. I abhor his very presence in the house.'
+
+"'But----'
+
+"'I know he has only been here but twice; but that is enough, Emma; he
+shall not come here again with any idea that he will receive the least
+welcome from me.'
+
+"'Is he a person known to father? Is he----'
+
+"'Rich? Oh, yes; he is rich. That is why father thinks him an eligible
+son-in-law. His thousands would raise the threatened discovery into a
+fact.'
+
+"'I see. I pity you, Hermione. It is hard to disappoint a father in his
+dearest hopes.'
+
+"I stared at her in sudden fury.
+
+"'Is that what you are thinking of?' I demanded, with reckless
+impetuosity. 'After all the cruel disappointment he has inflicted upon
+me----'
+
+"But Emma had slipped from the room. She had no words now with which to
+meet my gusts of temper.
+
+"A visit from my father came next. Though strong in my resolve not to be
+shaken, I secretly quaked at the cold, cruel determination in his face.
+A man after all is so much more unrelenting than a woman.
+
+"'Hermione,' he cried, 'you have disobeyed me. You have insulted my
+guest, and you have shaken the hopes which I thought I had a right to
+form, being your father and the author of your being. I said if you did
+this you should suffer, but I mean to give you one more chance. Mr.
+Harding was startled rather than alienated. If you show yourself in
+future the amiable and sensible woman which you can be, he will forget
+this foolish ebullition and make you the offer his passion inspires.
+This would mean worldly prosperity, social consideration, and everything
+else which a reasonable woman, even if she has been disappointed in
+love, could require. While for me--you cannot know what it would be for
+me, for you have no capability for appreciating the noble study to which
+I am devoted.'
+
+"'No,' I said, hard and cold as adamant, 'I have no appreciation for a
+study which, like another Moloch, demands, not only the sacrifice of the
+self-respect, but even the lives of your unhappy children.'
+
+"'You rave,' was his harsh reply. 'I offer you all the pleasures of
+life, and you call it immolation. Is not Mr. Harding as much of a
+gentleman as Dr. Sellick? Do I ask you to accept the attentions of a
+boor or a scape-grace? He is called a very honorable man by those who
+know him, and if you were ten times handsomer than you are, ten times
+more amiable, and had no defect calculated to diminish the regard of
+most men, you would still be scarcely worthy to bear the name of so
+wealthy, honorable, and highly esteemed a young man.'
+
+"'Father, father!' I exclaimed, scarcely able to bear from him this
+allusion to my misfortune.
+
+"'Why he has taken such a sudden, and, if I may say it, violent fancy
+to you, I find it hard to understand myself. But he has done this, and
+he has not scrupled to tell me so, and to intimate that he would like
+the opportunity of cultivating your good graces. Will you, then--I ask
+it for the last time--extend him a welcome, or must I see my hopes
+vanish, and with them a life too feeble to survive the disappointment
+which their loss must occasion.'
+
+"'I cannot give any sort of welcome to this man,' I returned. 'If I did,
+I would be doing him a wrong, as well as you and myself. I dislike him,
+father, more than I can make you understand. His presence is worse than
+death to me; I would rather go to my coffin than to his arms. But if I
+liked him, if he were the beau-ideal of my dreams, could I break the vow
+I made one day in your presence? This man is not Dr. Sellick; do not
+then seek to make me forget the oath of isolation I have taken.'
+
+"'Fool! fool!' was my father's furious retort. 'I know he is not Dr.
+Sellick. If he were I should not have his cause to plead to _you_.'
+
+"How nearly his secret came out in his rage. 'If I could make you
+understand; make you see----'
+
+"'You make me see that I am giving you a great and bitter
+disappointment,' I broke in. 'But it only equalizes matters; you have
+given me one.'
+
+"He bounded to my side; he seized my arm and shook it.
+
+"'Drop that foolish talk,' he cried. 'I will hear no more of it, nor of
+your staying in the house on that account or any other. You will go out
+to-morrow. You will go out with Mr. Harding. You will----'
+
+"'Father,' I put in, chill as ice, 'do you expect to carry me out in
+your arms?'
+
+"He fell back; he was a small man, my father, and I, as you know, am
+large for a woman.
+
+"'You vixen!' he muttered, 'curses on the day when you were born!'
+
+"'That curse has been already pronounced,' I muttered.
+
+"He stood still, he made no answer, he seemed to be gathering himself
+together for a final appeal. Had he looked at me a little longer; had he
+shown any sympathy for my position, any appreciation for my wrongs, or
+any compunction for the share he had taken in them, I might have shown
+myself to have possessed some womanly softness and latent gentleness.
+But instead of that he took on in those few frightful moments such a
+look of cold, calculating hate that I was at once steeled and appalled.
+I hardly knew what he said when he cried at last:
+
+"'Once! twice! thrice! Will you do what I desire, Hermione?'
+
+"I only knew he had asked something I could not grant, so I answered,
+with what calmness I could, in the old formula, now for some months gone
+into disuse, 'I will not,' and sank, weary with my own emotions, into a
+chair.
+
+"He gave me one look--I shall never forget it,--and threw up his arms
+with what sounded like an imprecation.
+
+"'Then your sin be upon your own head!' he cried, and without another
+word left the room.
+
+"I was frightened; never had I seen such an expression on mortal face
+before. And this was my father; the man who had courted my mother; who
+had put the ring upon her finger at the altar; who had sat at her dying
+bed and smiled as she whispered: 'For a busy man, you have always been a
+good husband to me.' Was this or that the real man as he was? Had these
+depths been always hidden within him, or had I created them there by my
+hardness and disobedience? I will never know."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+FATHER AND CHILD.
+
+
+"The night which followed this day was a sleepless one for me. Yet how I
+dreaded the morning! How I shrank from the first sight of my father's
+face! Had Auntie Lovell been with us I should have prevailed upon her to
+have gone to him and tried to smooth the way to some sort of
+reconciliation between us, but she was in Chicago, and I was not yet
+upon such terms with Emma that I could bear to make of her a go-between.
+I preferred to meet him without apology, and by dutifulness in all other
+respects make him forget in time my failure to oblige him in one. _I had
+made up my mind to go out of the house that day, though not with Mr.
+Harding._
+
+"But sometimes it seems as if Providence stepped in our way when we try
+to recover from any false position into which we have been betrayed by
+the heat and stress of our own passions. When I tried to rise I found
+myself ill, and for several days after that I knew little and cared less
+where I was, or what my future was like to be. When I was well enough to
+get up and go about my duties again, I found the house and my father in
+very much the same condition as they were before the fatal appearance of
+Mr. Harding. No look from his eye revealed that any great change had
+taken place in his attitude towards me, and after learning that Mr.
+Harding had come once since my illness, been closeted with my father for
+some time, and had then gone away with a rather formal and hard good-by
+to the anxious Emma, I began to feel that my fears had been part of the
+delirium of the fever which had afterwards set in, and that I was
+alarming myself and softening my heart more than was necessary.
+
+"The consequence was that I did not go out that afternoon, nor the next
+morning, nor for a week after, though I was always saying to myself that
+I would surprise them yet by a sudden dash out of the house when they
+showed, or rather my father showed, any such relenting in his studied
+attitude of indifference as would make such an action on the part of one
+constituted like myself, possible.
+
+"But he was thinking of anything else but relenting, and even I began
+to see in a few days that something portentous lay behind the apparent
+apathy of his manner. He worked as he had of old, or rather he shut
+himself up in his laboratory from morning until night, but when he did
+appear, there was something new in his manner that deeply troubled me. I
+began to shrink at the sound of his step, and more than once went
+without a meal rather than meet the cold glance of his eye.
+
+"Emma, who seemed to have little idea of what I suffered and of what I
+dreaded (what did I dread? I hardly knew) used to talk to me sometimes
+of our father's failing health; but I either hushed her or sat like a
+stone, I was in such a state of shuddering horror. I remember one day as
+I stole past the laboratory door, I beheld her with her arms round his
+neck, and the sight filled me with tumult, but whether it was one of
+longing or repugnance, or a mixture of both, I can hardly tell. But I
+know it was with difficulty I repressed a cry of grief, and that when I
+found myself alone my limbs were shaking under me like those of one
+stricken with ague. At last there came a day when father was no longer
+to be seen at the table. He ordered his meals brought to the laboratory,
+but denied being sick. I stared at Emma, who delivered this message, and
+asked her what she thought of it.
+
+"'That he _is_ ill,' she declared.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Two weeks later my father called me into his presence. I went in fear
+and trembling. He was standing by his desk in the laboratory, and I
+could not repress a start of surprise when I saw the change which had
+taken place in him. But I said nothing, only stood near the doorway and
+waited for what he had to say.
+
+"'Look at me,' he commanded. 'I am standing to-day; to-morrow I shall be
+sitting. I wish you to watch your work; now go.'
+
+"I turned, so shaken by his look and terrible wanness that I could
+hardly stand. But at the door I paused and cried in irrepressible
+terror:
+
+"'You are ill; let me send for a doctor. I cannot see you dying thus
+before my eyes.'
+
+"'You cannot?' With what a grim chuckle he uttered the words. 'We will
+see what you can bear.' Then as my eyes opened in terror, and I seemed
+about to flee, he cried, 'No doctor, do you hear? I will see none. And
+mark me, no talking about what goes on in this room, if you do not wish
+my curse.'
+
+"Aghast, I rushed from that unhallowed door. What did his words mean?
+What was his purpose? Upon what precipice of horror was I stumbling?
+
+"The next day he summoned me again. I felt too weak to go, but I dared
+not disobey. I opened his door with a shaking hand, and found him
+sitting, as he had promised, in an old arm-chair that had been his
+mother's.
+
+"'Do I look any better?' he asked.
+
+"I shook my head. He was evidently much worse.
+
+"'The poison of disobedience works slowly, but it works sure,' he cried.
+
+"I threw up my arms with a shriek.
+
+"He seemed to love the sound.
+
+"'You do not enjoy the fruits of your actions,' said he. 'You love your
+old father so dearly.'
+
+"I held out my hands; I entreated; I implored.
+
+"'Do not--do not look on me like this. Some dreadful thought is in your
+mind--some dreadful revenge. Do not cherish it; do not make my already
+ruined life a worse torture to me. Let me have help, let me send for a
+doctor----'
+
+"But his sternly lifted finger was already pointing at the door.
+
+"'You have stayed too long,' he muttered. 'Next time you will barely
+look in, and leave without a word.'
+
+"I crouched, he cowed me so, and then fled, this time to find Emma,
+Doris, some one.
+
+"They were both huddled in the hall below. They had heard our voices and
+were terrified at the sound.
+
+"'Don't you think he is very ill?' asked Emma. 'Don't you think we ought
+to have the doctor come, in spite of his commands to the contrary?'
+
+"'Yes,' I gasped, 'and quickly, or we will feel like murderers.'
+
+"'Dr. Dudgeon is a big know-nothing,' cried Doris.
+
+"'But he is a doctor,' I said. And Doris went for him at once.
+
+"When he came Emma undertook to take him to the laboratory; I did not
+dare. I sat on the stairs and listened, shaking in every limb. What was
+going on in that room? What was my father saying? What was the doctor
+deciding? When the door opened at last I was almost unconscious. The
+sound of the doctor's voice, always loud, struck upon my ears like
+thunder, but I could not distinguish his words. Not till he had come
+half-way down the stairs did I begin to understand them, and then I
+heard:
+
+"'A case of overwork! He will be better in a day or two. Send for me if
+he seems any worse.'
+
+"Overwork! that clay-white cheek! those dry and burning lips! the eyes
+hollowed out as if death were already making a skeleton of him! I seized
+the doctor's hand as he went by.
+
+"'Are you sure that is all?' I cried.
+
+"He gave me a pompous stare. 'I do not often repeat myself,' said he,
+and went haughtily out without another word.
+
+"Emma, standing at the top of the stairs, came down as the door closed
+behind him.
+
+"'Father was not so angry as I feared he would be. He smiled at the
+doctor and seemed glad to see him. He even roused himself up to talk,
+and for a few minutes did not look so ill as he really is.'
+
+"'Did the doctor leave medicine?' I asked.
+
+"'Oh, yes, plenty; powder and pills.'
+
+"'Where is it?'
+
+"'On father's desk. He says he will take it regularly. He would not let
+me give it to him.'
+
+"I reeled; everything seemed turning round with me.
+
+"'Watch him,' I cried, 'watch----' and could say no more.
+Unconsciousness had come to relieve me.
+
+"It was dark when I came to myself. I was lying on my own bed, and by
+the dim light burning on a small table near by I saw the form of Doris
+bending over me. Starting up, I caught her by the arm.
+
+"'What is going on?' I cried.
+
+"Rude noises were in the house. A sound of breaking glass.
+
+"'It comes from the laboratory,' she exclaimed, and rushed from the
+room.
+
+"I rose and had barely strength enough to follow her. When we reached
+the laboratory door Emma was already there. A light was burning at one
+end of the long and dismal room, and amid the weird shadows that it cast
+we saw our father in a loose gown he often wore when at work, standing
+over his table with lifted fist. It was bleeding; he had just brought it
+down upon a favorite collection of tubes.
+
+"'Ah!' he cried, tottering and seizing the table to steady himself; 'you
+have come to see the end of my famous discovery. Here it is; look!' And
+his fist came down again upon a jar containing the work of months.
+
+"The smash that followed seemed to echo in my brain. I rushed forward,
+but was stopped by his look.
+
+"'Another result of your obduracy,' he cried, and sank back fainting
+upon the hard floor.
+
+"I let Emma and Doris lift him. What place had I at his side?
+
+"'Shall I go for the doctor again?' inquired Doris as she came to my
+room a half-hour later.
+
+"'Does he seem worse?' I asked.
+
+"'No; but he looks dreadfully. Ever since we got him on the lounge--he
+would not leave the laboratory--he has lain in one position, his eye
+upon those broken pieces of glass. He would not even let me wipe up the
+red liquid that was in them, and it drips from table to floor in a way
+to make your blood run cold.'
+
+"'Can I see him,' I asked, 'without his seeing me?'
+
+"'Yes,' said she, 'if you come very carefully; his head is towards the
+door.'
+
+"I did as she bade, and crept towards the open door. As I reached it he
+was speaking low to himself.
+
+"'Drop by drop,' he was saying, 'just as if it were my life-blood that
+was dripping from the table to the floor.'
+
+"It was a terrible thing to hear, for _me_ to hear, and I shrank back.
+But soon a certain sense of duty drove me forward again, and I leaned
+across the threshold, peering at his rigid and attenuated figure lying
+just where he could watch the destruction of all his hopes. I could not
+see his face, but his attitude was eloquent, and I felt a pang strike
+through all my horror at the sight of a grief the death of both his
+children could not have occasioned him.
+
+"Suddenly he bounded up.
+
+"'Curse her!' he began, in a frenzy; but instantly seemed to bethink
+himself, for he sank back very meekly as Emma stooped over him and Doris
+rushed to his side. 'Excuse me,' said he; 'I fear I am not just in my
+right mind.'
+
+"They thought so too, and in a few minutes Doris stole out after the
+doctor, but I knew whatever delirium he had sprang from his hate of me,
+and was awed into a shrinking inactivity which Emma excused while only
+partially understanding.
+
+"The doctor came and this time I stood watching. My father, who had not
+expected this interference, showed anger at first, but soon settled back
+into a half-jocular, half-indifferent endurance of the interloper, which
+tended to impress the latter, and did succeed in doing so, with the
+folly of those who thought he was sick enough to rouse a doctor up at
+midnight. Few questions brought few replies, and the irritated physician
+left us with something like a rebuke. He however said he would come
+again in the morning, as there was a fitfulness in my father's pulse
+which he did not like.
+
+"But before the doctor appeared that morning father had called me for
+the third and last time to his side.
+
+"'I wish to see my eldest daughter alone,' he declared, as Emma lingered
+and Doris hovered about the open door. They at once went out. 'Now shut
+the door,' said he, as their footsteps were heard descending the stairs.
+
+"I did as I was bid, though I felt as if I were shutting myself in with
+some horrid doom.
+
+"'Now come in front of me,' he commanded, 'I want to look at you. I
+have just five minutes left in which to do it.'
+
+"'Five minutes!' I repeated hoarsely, creeping round with tottering and
+yet more tottering steps to where he pointed.
+
+"'Yes; the poison has done its work at last. At eight o'clock I shall be
+dead.'
+
+"'Poison!' I shrieked, but in so choked a tone the word sounded like a
+smothered whisper.
+
+"But he was alarmed by it for all that.
+
+"'Do not tell the world,' he cried. 'It is enough that you know it. Are
+you pleased that you have driven your father to self-destruction? Will
+it make your life in this house, in which you have vowed to remain, any
+happier? I told you that your sin should be on your head; and it will
+be. For, listen to me: now in this last dreadful hour, I command you,
+heartless and disobedient one, to keep that vow. By this awful death, by
+the despair which has driven me to it, beware of leaving these doors. In
+your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in your remorse see
+that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for hatred, dare to cross the
+threshold, or I will denounce you in the grave where I shall be gone,
+and my curse shall be upon you.'
+
+"He had risen in his passion as he uttered these words, but he sank
+back as he finished, and I thought he was dead. Terrified, crushed, I
+sank upon my knees, having no words with which to plead for the mercy
+for which I now longed. The next minute a horrible groan burst upon my
+ear.
+
+"'It eats--it burns into my vitals. The suffering has come,--the
+suffering which I have often noted with unconcern in the animals upon
+which I tested it. I cannot bear it; I had rather live. Get me the
+antidote; there, there, in the long narrow drawer in the cabinet by the
+wall. Not there, not there!' he shrieked, as I stumbled over the floor,
+which seemed to rise in waves beneath my feet. 'The other cabinet, the
+other drawer; _you are where the poison is_.'
+
+"I halted; weights seemed to be upon my feet; I could not move. He was
+writhing in agony on the floor; he no longer seemed to know where I
+stood.
+
+"'Open it--the drawer,' he cried. 'Bring me what is in it.'
+
+"I reached out my hand; heaven and earth seemed to stand still; red
+lights danced before my eyes; I drew out the drawer.
+
+"'Quick, quick, the powder!' he moaned; 'fetch it!'
+
+"I was staring at him, but my hand groped in the drawer. I felt a little
+packet of powder; I took it and crossed the room. As soon as I was near
+him he stretched out his hand and grasped it. I saw him empty it into
+his mouth; at the same instant his eyes fixed themselves in horror on
+the drawer I had left open behind me, the drawer in which the poison was
+kept.
+
+"'Curse you for a----' He never said what. With this broken imprecation
+upon his lips, he sank back upon the floor, dead."
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+EDGAR AND FRANK.
+
+
+Frank, who had been reading these words as if swept along by a torrent,
+started to his feet with a hoarse cry, as he reached this point. He
+could not believe his eyes, he could not believe his understanding. He
+shrank from the paper that contained the deadly revelation, as though a
+snake had suddenly uncoiled itself from amid the sheets. With hair
+slowly rising on his forehead, he stared and stared, hoping wildly,
+hoping against hope, to see other words start from the sheet, and blot
+out of existence the ones that had in an instant made his love a horror,
+his life a desert.
+
+But no, Heaven works no such miracle, even in sight of such an agony as
+his; and the words met his gaze relentlessly till his misery was more
+than he could endure, and he rushed from the room like a madman.
+
+Edgar, who was busy over some medical treatise, rose rapidly as he heard
+the unsteady footsteps of his friend.
+
+"What is the matter?" he cried, as Frank came stumbling into his
+presence. "You look----"
+
+"Never mind how I look; comfort me, Edgar, comfort me!" and in his
+anguish he burst into irrepressible sobs "Hermione is----" He could not
+say what, but drew his friend after him to the room where the letter
+lay, and pointed to the few ghastly lines which had undone him. "Read
+those," he panted. "She had suffered; she was not herself, but, oh----"
+He broke down again, and did not try to speak further till Edgar had
+read the hideous confession contained in those closing lines, and some
+of the revelations which had led up to it. Then he said: "Do not speak
+to me yet; let me bear the horror alone. I loved her so; ah, I did love
+her!"
+
+Edgar, who had turned very pale, was considerate enough to respect this
+grief, and silently wait for Frank to regain sufficient composure to
+talk with him. This was not soon, but when the moment came, Edgar showed
+that his heart beat truly under all his apparent indifference. He did
+not say, "I bade you beware"; he merely took his friend's hand and wrung
+it. Frank, who was almost overwhelmed with shame and sorrow, muttered
+some words of acknowledgment.
+
+"I must get out of the town," said he. "I feel as if the very atmosphere
+here would choke me."
+
+Here came again the long, doleful drone of the foghorn. "How like a
+groan that is," said he. "An evil day it was for me when I first came
+within its foreboding sound."
+
+"We will say that when all is over," ventured Edgar, but in no very
+hopeful tones. "You should not have shown me these words, Frank; the
+wonder is that she was willing to show them to you."
+
+"She could not otherwise get rid of my importunities. I would take no
+hint, and so she tells me the truth."
+
+"That shows nobleness," remarked Edgar. "She has some virtues which may
+excuse you to yourself for the weakness you have shown in her regard."
+
+"I dare not think of it," said Frank. "I dare not think of her again.
+Yet to leave her when she is suffering so! Is not that almost as cruel a
+fate as to learn that she is so unworthy?"
+
+"I would you had never come here!" exclaimed Edgar, with unwonted
+fervency.
+
+"There are more words," observed Frank, "but I cannot read them. "Words
+of sorrow and remorse, no doubt, but what do they avail? The fact
+remains that she gave her father in his agony another dose of the poison
+that was killing him, instead of the antidote for which he prayed."
+
+"Yes," said Edgar, "only I feel bound to say that no antidote would have
+saved him then. I know the poison and I know the antidote; we have
+tested them together often."
+
+Frank shuddered.
+
+"He had the heart of a demon," declared Edgar, "to plan and carry out
+such a revenge, even upon a daughter who had so grievously disappointed
+him. I can hardly believe the tale, only that I have learned that one
+may believe anything of human nature."
+
+"She--she did not kill him, then?"
+
+"No, but her guilt is as great as if she had, for she must have had the
+momentary instinct of murder."
+
+"O Hermione, Hermione! so beautiful and so unhappy!"
+
+"A momentary instinct, which she is expiating fearfully. No wonder she
+does not leave the house. No wonder that her face looks like a tragic
+mask."
+
+"No one seems to have suspected her guilt, or even his. We have never
+heard any whispers about poison."
+
+"Dudgeon is a conceited fool. Having once said overwork, he would stick
+to overwork. Besides that poison is very subtle; I would have difficulty
+in detecting its workings myself."
+
+"And this is the tragedy of that home! Oh, how much worse, how much more
+fearful than any I have attributed to it!"
+
+The Doctor sighed.
+
+"What has not Emma had to bear," he said.
+
+"Emma!" Frank unconsciously roused himself. "If I remember rightly,
+Hermione has said that Emma did not know all her trouble."
+
+"Thank God! May she never be enlightened."
+
+"Edgar," whispered Frank, "I do not think I can let you read all that
+letter, though it tells much you ought to know. I have yet some
+consideration--for--for Hermione--" (How hard the word came from lips
+which once uttered it with so much pride!)--"and she never expected any
+other eyes than mine to rest upon these revelations of her heart of
+hearts. But one thing I must tell you in justice to yourself and the
+girl upon whom no shadow rests but that of a most loyal devotion to a
+most wretched sister. Not from her heart did the refusal come which
+blighted your hopes and made you cynical towards women. There were
+reasons she could not communicate, reasons she could not even dwell upon
+herself, why she felt forced to dismiss you, and in the seemingly
+heartless way she did."
+
+"I am willing to believe it," said Edgar.
+
+"Emma is a pure and beautiful spirit," observed Frank, and gave himself
+up to grief for her who was not, and yet who commanded his pity for her
+sufferings and possibly for her provocations.
+
+Edgar now had enough of his own to think of, and if Frank had been less
+absorbed in his own trouble he might have observed with what longing
+eyes his friend turned every now and then towards the sheets which
+contained so much of Emma's history as well as her sister's. Finally he
+spoke:
+
+"Why does Emma remain in the house to which the father only condemned
+her sister?"
+
+"Because she once vowed to share that sister's fate, whatever it might
+be."
+
+"Her love for her sister is then greater than any other passion she may
+have had."
+
+"I don't know; there were other motives beside love to influence her,"
+explained Frank, and said no more.
+
+Edgar sank again into silence. It was Frank who spoke next.
+
+"Do you think"--He paused and moistened his lips--"Have you doubted what
+our duty is about this matter?"
+
+"To leave the girl--you said it yourself. Have you any other idea,
+Frank?"
+
+"No, no; that is not what I mean," stammered Etheridge. "I mean
+about--about--the father's death. Should the world know? Is it a matter
+for the--for the police?"
+
+"No," cried Edgar, aghast. "Mr. Cavanagh evidently killed himself. It is
+a dreadful thing to know, but I do not see why we need make it public."
+
+Frank drew a long breath.
+
+"I feared," he said,--"I did not know but you would think my duty would
+lie in--in----"
+
+"Don't speak of it," exclaimed Edgar. "If you do not wish to finish
+reading her confession, put it up. Here is a drawer, in which you can
+safely lock it."
+
+Frank, recoiling from the touch of those papers which had made such a
+havoc with his life, motioned to Edgar to do what he would with them.
+
+"Are you not going to write--to answer this in some way?" asked Edgar.
+
+"Thank God she has not made that necessary. She wrote somewhere, in the
+beginning, I think, that, if I felt the terror of her words too deeply,
+I was to pass by her house on the other side of the street at an early
+hour in the morning. Did she dream that I could do anything else?"
+
+Edgar closed the drawer in which he had hidden her letter, locked it,
+and laid the key down on the table beside Frank.
+
+Frank did not observe the action; he had risen to his feet, and in
+another moment had left the room. He had reached the point of feeling
+the need of air and a wider space in which to breathe. As he stepped
+into the street, he turned in a contrary direction to that in which he
+had been wont to walk. Had he not done this; had he gone southward, as
+usual, he might have seen the sly and crouching figure which was drawn
+up on that side of the house, peering into the room he had just left
+through the narrow opening made by an imperfectly lowered shade.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+UNCLE AND NIECE.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+THE WHITE POWDER.
+
+
+It was nine o'clock in the morning, and Hermione stood in the laboratory
+window overlooking the street. Pale from loss of sleep and exhausted
+with the fever of anxiety which had consumed her ever since she had
+despatched her letter to Mr. Etheridge, she looked little able to cope
+with any disappointment which might be in store for her. But as she
+leaned there watching for Frank, it was evident from her whole bearing
+that she was moved by a fearful hope rather than by an overmastering
+dread; perhaps because she had such confidence in his devotion; perhaps
+because there was such vitality in her own love.
+
+Her manner was that of one who thinks himself alone, and yet she was
+not alone. At the other end of the long and dismal apartment glided the
+sly figure of Huckins. No longer shabby and unkempt, but dressed with a
+neatness which would have made his sister Cynthia stare in amazement if
+she could have risen from her grave to see him, he flitted about with
+noiseless tread, listening to every sigh that escaped from his niece's
+lips, and marking, though he scarcely glanced her way, each turn of her
+head and each bend of her body, as if he were fully aware of her reasons
+for standing there, and the importance of the issues hanging upon the
+occurrences of the next fifteen minutes.
+
+She may have known of his presence, and she may not. Her preoccupation
+was great, and her attention fixed not upon anything in the room, but
+upon the street without. Yet she may have felt the influence of that
+gliding Evil, moving, snake-like, at her back. If she did she gave no
+sign, and the moments came and went without any change in her eager
+attitude or any cessation in the ceaseless movements with which he
+beguiled his own anxiety and the devilish purposes which were slowly
+forming themselves in his selfish and wicked mind.
+
+At length she gave a start, and leaned heavily forward. Huckins, who was
+expecting this proof of sudden interest, paused where he was, and
+surveyed her with undisguised eagerness in his baleful eyes, while the
+words "She sees him; he is coming" formed themselves upon his thin and
+quivering lips, though no sound disturbed the silence, and neither he
+nor she seemed to breathe.
+
+And he was right. Frank was coming down the street, not gayly and with
+the buoyant step of a happy lover, but with head sunk upon his breast
+and eyes lowered to the ground. Will he lift them as he approaches the
+gate? Will he smile, as in the olden time--the olden time that was
+yesterday--and raise his hand towards the gate and swing it back and
+enter with that lightsome air of his at once protecting and
+joy-inspiring? He looks very serious now, and his steps falter; but
+surely, surely, his love is not going to fail him at the crisis; surely,
+surely, he who has overlooked so much will not be daunted by the little
+more with which she has tried his devotion; surely, surely---- But his
+eyes do not lift themselves. He is at the gate, but his hand is not
+raised to it, and the smile does not come. He is going by, not on the
+other side of the street, but going by, going by, which means----
+
+As the consciousness of what it did mean pierced her heart and soul,
+Hermione gave a great cry--she never knew how great a cry--and, staring
+like one demented after the beloved figure that in her disordered sight
+seemed to shrink and waver as it vanished, sank helpless upon the window
+sill, with her head falling forward, in a deadly faint.
+
+Huckins, hearing that cry, slowly rubbed his hands together and smiled
+as the Dark One might smile at the sudden downfall of some doubtful
+soul. Then he passed softly to the door, and, shutting it carefully,
+came back and recommenced his restless pacings, but this time with an
+apparent purpose of investigation, for he opened and shut drawers, not
+quietly, but with a decided clatter, and peered here and there into
+bottles and jars, casting, as he did so, ready side-glances at the
+drooping figure from which the moans of a fatal despair were now slowly
+breaking.
+
+When those moans became words, he stopped and listened, and this was
+what he heard come faltering from her lips:
+
+"Twice! twice! Once when I felt myself strong and now when I feel myself
+weak. It is too much for a proud woman. I cannot bear it."
+
+At this evidence of revolt and discouragement, Huckins' smile grew in
+its triumph. He seemed to glide nearer to her; yet he did not stir.
+
+She saw nothing. If she had once recognized his presence, he was to her
+now as one blotted from existence. She was saying over and over to
+herself: "No hope! no hope! I am cursed! My father's hate reaches higher
+than my prayers. There is no escape; no love, no light. Solitude is
+before me; solitude forever. Believing this, I cannot live; indeed I
+cannot!"
+
+As if this had been the word for which he was waiting, Huckins suddenly
+straightened up his lean figure and began himself to talk, not as she
+did, in wild and passionate tones, but in low, abstracted murmurs, as if
+he were too intent upon a certain discovery he had made to know or care
+whether there was or was not any one present to overhear his words.
+
+And what did he say? what could he say at a moment like this? Listen
+and gauge the evil in the man, for it is deep as his avarice and
+relentless as his purpose to enjoy the riches which he considers his
+due. He is standing by a cabinet, the cabinet on the left of the room,
+and his hand is in a long and narrow drawer.
+
+"What is this?" (Mark the surprise in his tone.) "A packet labelled
+_Poison_? This is a strange thing to find lying about in an open drawer.
+_Poison!_ I wonder what use brother Cavanagh had for poison?"
+
+He pauses; was it because he had heard a moan or cry break from the spot
+where Hermione crouched against the wall? No, there was silence there, a
+deep and awful silence, which ought to have made the flesh creep upon
+his bones, but which, instead, seemed to add a greater innocence to his
+musing tones.
+
+"I suppose it was what was left after some old experiment. It is very
+dangerous stuff. I should not like to drop these few grains of white
+powder upon my tongue, unless I wanted to be rid of all my troubles.
+Guess I had better shake the paper out of the window, or those girls
+will come across it some day, and may see that word Poison and be moved
+by it. Life in this house hasn't many attractions."
+
+Any sound now from that dim, distant corner? No, silence is there still;
+deadly silence. He smiles darkly, and speaks again; very low now, but
+oh, how clearly!
+
+"But what business is it of mine? I find poison in this drawer, and I
+leave it where I find it, and shut the drawer. It may be wanted for
+rats, and it is always a mistake for old folks to meddle. But I should
+like to; I'd like to throw this same innocent-looking white powder out
+of the window; it makes _me_ afraid to think of it lying shut up here in
+a drawer so easily opened---- My child! Hermione!" he suddenly shrieked,
+"what do you want?"
+
+She was standing before him, a white and terrible figure.
+
+"Nothing," came from her set lips, in a low and even tone; but she laid
+one hand upon the drawer he had half shut and with the other pointed to
+the door.
+
+He shrank from her, appalled perhaps at his work; perhaps at her
+recognition of it.
+
+"Don't," he feebly protested, shaking with terror, or was it with a
+hideous anxiety? "There is poison in that drawer; do not open it."
+
+"Go for my sister," was the imperious command. "I have no use for you
+here, but for her I have."
+
+"You won't open that drawer," he prayed, as he retreated before her eyes
+in frightened jerks and breathless pauses.
+
+"I tell you I do not need you," she repeated, her hand still on the
+drawer, her form rigid, her face blue-white and drawn.
+
+"I--I will bring Emma," he faltered, and shambled across the threshold,
+throwing back upon her a look she may have noted and may not, but which
+if she had understood, would certainly have made her pause. "I will go
+for Emma," he said again, closing the door behind him with a touch which
+seemed to make even that senseless wood fall away from him. Then he
+listened--listened instead of going for the gentle sister whose presence
+might have calmed the turbulent spirit he had just left. And as he
+listened his face gradually took on a satisfied look, till, at a certain
+sound from within, he allowed his hands the luxury of a final
+congratulatory rub, and then gliding from the place, went below.
+
+Emma was standing in the parlor window, fixed in dismay at the sight of
+Frank's going by without word or look; but Huckins did not stop to give
+her the message with which he had been entrusted. Instead of that he
+passed into the kitchen, and not till he had crossed the floor and
+shambled out into the open air of the garden did he venture to turn and
+say to the watching Doris:
+
+"I am afraid Miss Hermione is not quite well."
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+THE HAND OF HUCKINS.
+
+
+Frank exhausted his courage in passing Hermione's door. When he heard
+the cry she gave, he stopped for a moment, then rushed hastily on, not
+knowing whither, and not caring, so long as he never saw the street or
+the house or the poplars again.
+
+He intended, as much as he intended anything, to take the train for New
+York, but when he came sufficiently to himself to think of the hour, he
+found that he was in a wood quite remote from the station, and that both
+the morning and noon trains had long since passed.
+
+It was not much of a disappointment. He was in that stage of misery in
+which everything seems blurred, and life and its duties too unreal for
+contemplation. He did not wish to act or even to think. The great
+solitude about him was more endurable than the sight of human faces, but
+I doubt if he would have been other than solitary anywhere, or seen
+aught but her countenance in any place where he might have been.
+
+And what made this the more torturing to him was the fact that he
+always saw her with an accusing look on her face. Never with bowed
+forehead or in an attitude of shame, but with the straightforward aspect
+of one utterly grieved where she had expected consideration and
+forbearance. This he knew to be a freak of his fancy, for had he not her
+words to prove she had merited his condemnation? But fancy or not, it
+followed him, softening unconsciously his thought of her, though it
+never for an instant weakened his resolve not to see her again or
+exchange another word with one whose conscience was laden with so heavy
+a crime.
+
+The wood in which he found himself wandering skirted the town towards
+the west, so that when, in the afternoon, hunger and weariness drove him
+back to the abodes of men, he had but to follow the beaten track which
+ran through it, to come out at the other end of the village from that by
+which he had entered.
+
+The place where he emerged was near a dark pool at the base of the hill
+on which was perched the Baptist church.
+
+As he saw this pool and caught a sight of the steeple towering above
+him in the summer sky, he felt himself grow suddenly frantic. Here she
+had stood with Emma, halting between life and death. Here she had been
+seized by her first temptation, and had been saved from it only to fall
+into another one immeasurably greater and more damning. Horrible,
+loathsome pool! why had it not swallowed her? Would it not have been
+better that it had? He dared to think so, and bent above its dismal
+depths with a fascination which in another moment made him recoil and
+dash away in horror towards the open spaces of the high-road.
+
+Edgar had just come in from his round of visits when Frank appeared
+before him. Having supposed him to be in New York, he uttered a loud
+exclamation. Whereupon Frank exclaimed:
+
+"I could not go. I seemed to be chained to this place. I have been
+wandering all day in the woods." And he sank into a chair exhausted,
+caring little whether Edgar noted or not his weary and dishevelled
+appearance.
+
+"You look ill," observed the Doctor; "or perhaps you have not eaten; let
+me get you a cup of coffee."
+
+Frank looked up but made no further sign.
+
+"You will stay with me to-night," suggested Edgar.
+
+"I am chained," repeated Frank, and that was all.
+
+With a look of sincerest compassion the Doctor quietly left the room. He
+had his own griefs, but he could master them; beside, the angel of hope
+was already whispering sweet messages to his secret soul. But Frank's
+trouble was beyond alleviation, and it crushed him as his own had never
+done, possibly because in this case his pride was powerless to sustain
+him. When he came back, he found Frank seated at the desk poring over
+the fatal letter. He had found the key of the drawer lying where he had
+left it, and, using it under a sudden impulse, had opened the drawer and
+taken out the sheets he had vowed never to touch again.
+
+Edgar paused when he saw the other's bended head and absorbed air, and
+though he was both annoyed and perplexed he said nothing, but set down
+the tray he had brought very near to Frank's elbow.
+
+The young lawyer neither turned nor gave it any attention.
+
+Edgar, with the wonted patience of a physician, sat down and waited for
+his friend to move. He would not interrupt him, but would simply be in
+readiness to hand the coffee when Frank turned. But he never handed him
+that cup of coffee, for suddenly, Frank, with a wild air and eyes fixed
+in a dazed stare upon the paper, started to his feet, and uttering a
+cry, began turning over the two or three sheets he was reading, as if he
+had made some almost incomprehensible discovery.
+
+"Edgar, Edgar," he hurriedly gasped, "read these over for me; I cannot
+see the words; there is something different here; we have made a
+mistake! Oh, what has happened! my head is all in a whirl."
+
+He sank back in his chair. Edgar, rushing forward, seized the half dozen
+sheets offered him and glanced eagerly over them.
+
+"I see no difference," he cried; but as he went on, driven by Frank's
+expectant eye, he gave a surprised start also, and turning back the
+pages, read them again and again, crying at last:
+
+"We must have overlooked one of these sheets. We read her letter
+without this page. What a mischance! for with these words left in it is
+no longer a confession we have before us, but a narrative. Frank, Frank,
+we have wronged the girl. She has no crime to bemoan, only a misery to
+relate."
+
+"Read it aloud," broke from Frank's lips. "Let me hear it from your
+mouth. How could we have overlooked such a page? Oh, my poor girl! my
+poor girl!"
+
+Edgar, beginning back a page or two from the one which had before
+escaped their attention, read as follows. The portion marked by brackets
+is the one that was new to both their eyes:
+
+    "But before the doctor appeared that morning father had called
+    me for the third and last time to his side.
+
+    "'I wish to see my eldest daughter alone,' he declared, as Emma
+    lingered and Doris hovered about the open door. They at once
+    went out. 'Now shut the door,' said he, as their footsteps were
+    heard descending the stairs.
+
+    "I did as I was bid, though I felt as if I were shutting myself
+    in with some horrid doom.
+
+    "'Now come in front of me,' he commanded. 'I want to look at
+    you; I have just five minutes left in which to do it.'
+
+    "'Five minutes!' I repeated hoarsely, creeping round with
+    tottering and yet more tottering steps to where he pointed.
+
+    "'Yes; the poison has done its work at last. At eight o'clock I
+    shall be dead.'
+
+    "'Poison!' I shrieked, but in so choked a tone the word sounded
+    like a smothered whisper.
+
+    "But he was alarmed by it for all that.
+
+    "'Do not tell the world,' he cried. 'It is enough that you know
+    it. Are you pleased that you have driven your father to
+    self-destruction? Will it make your life in this house, in which
+    you have vowed to remain, any happier? I told you that your sin
+    should be on your head, and it will be. For, listen to me: now
+    in this last dreadful hour, I command you, heartless and
+    disobedient one, to keep that vow. By this awful death, by the
+    despair which has driven me to it, beware of leaving these
+    doors. In your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in
+    your remorse see that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for
+    hatred, dare to cross the threshold, or I will denounce you in
+    the grave where I shall be gone, and my curse shall be upon
+    you.'
+
+    "He had risen in his passion as he uttered these words, but he
+    sank back as he finished, and I thought he was dead.
+
+    "Terrified, crushed, I sank upon my knees, having no words with
+    which to plead for the mercy for which I now longed. The next
+    minute a horrible groan burst upon my ear.
+
+    "'It eats--it burns into my vitals. The suffering has
+    come,--the suffering which I have often noted with unconcern in
+    the animals upon which I had tested it. I cannot bear it; I had
+    rather live. Get me the antidote; there, there in the long,
+    narrow drawer in the cabinet by the wall! Not there, not there!'
+    he shrieked, as I stumbled over the floor, which seemed to rise
+    in waves beneath my feet. 'The other cabinet, the other drawer;
+    _you are where the poison is_.'
+
+    "I halted; weights seemed to be upon my feet; I could not move.
+    He was writhing in agony on the floor; he no longer seemed to
+    know where I stood.
+
+        { "'The antidote!' he moaned, 'the antidote!'            }
+        { I burst the bonds which held me, and leaving open      }
+        { the drawer which I had half pulled out in my eagerness }
+        { to relieve him, I rushed across the room to the        }
+        { cabinet he had pointed out.                            }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "'The long drawer,' he murmured, 'the one              }
+        { like the other. Pull it hard; it is not locked!'       }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "I tried to do as he commanded, but my hand            }
+        { slid helplessly from drawer to drawer. I could         }
+        { hardly see. He moaned and shrieked again.              }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "'The long one, I say, the long one!'                  }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "As he spoke my hand touched it.                       }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "'I have it,' I panted forth.                          }
+
+    "'Open it--the drawer,' he cried. 'Bring me what is in it.'
+
+    "I reached out my hand; heaven and earth seemed to stand still;
+    red lights danced before my eyes; I drew out the drawer.
+
+    "'Quick, quick, the powder!' he moaned; 'fetch it!'
+
+    "I was staring at him, but my hand groped in the drawer. I felt
+    a little packet of powder; I took it and crossed the room. As
+    soon as I was near him he stretched out his hand and grasped it.
+    I saw him empty it into his mouth; at the same instant his eyes
+    fixed themselves in horror on the drawer I had left open behind
+    me, the drawer in which the poison was kept.
+
+    "'Curse you for a ----' He never said what. With this broken
+    imprecation upon his lips, he sank back upon the floor, dead."
+
+"God, what a difference!" cried Edgar. But Frank, trembling from head to
+foot, reached out and took the sheets, and laying them on the desk
+before him, buried his face in them. When he looked up again, Edgar, for
+all his own relief, was startled by the change in him.
+
+"Her vindication comes late," said he, "but I will go at once and
+explain----"
+
+"Wait; let us first understand how we both were led to make such a
+mistake. Could the leaves have stuck together?"
+
+There were no signs of this having happened. Yet who could say that
+this was not the real explanation of the whole matter? The most curious
+feature of the occurrence was that just the missing of that one sheet
+should have so altered the sense of what they read. They did not know
+then or ever that this very fact had struck Huckins also in his stolen
+reading of the same, and that it had been his hand which had abstracted
+it and then again restored it when he thought the mutilated manuscript
+had done its work. They never knew this, as I say, but they thought the
+chance which had occurred to them a very strange one, and tried to lay
+it to their agitation at the time, or to any cause but the real one.
+
+The riddle proving insolvable, they abandoned it, and Frank again rose.
+But Edgar drawing his attention to the few additional sheets which he
+had never read, he sat down again in eagerness to peruse them. Let us
+read them with him, for in them we shall find the Hermione of to-day,
+not the angry and imperious woman upon whom her father revenged himself
+by a death calculated to blot the sun from her skies and happiness from
+her heart forever.
+
+    "When Emma came to the room she discovered me kneeling, rigid
+    and horror-stricken, above my father's outstretched form. She
+    says that I met her eyes with mine, but that there was no look
+    of life within them. Indeed, I was hardly alive, and have no
+    remembrance of how I was taken from that room or what happened
+    in the house for hours. When I did rouse, Emma was beside me.
+    Her look was one of grief but not of horror, and I saw she had
+    no idea of what had passed between my father and myself during
+    the last few days. Dr. Dudgeon had told her that our father had
+    died of heart-disease, and she believed him, and thought my
+    terror was due to the suddenness of his end and the fact that I
+    was alone with him at the time.
+
+    "She therefore smiled with a certain faint encouragement when I
+    opened my eyes upon her face, but pushed me back with gentle
+    hand when I tried to rise, saying:
+
+    "'All is well with father, Hermione,--so think only of yourself
+    just now; I do not think you are able to get up.'
+
+    "I was only too happy not to make the effort. If only my eyes
+    had never opened! If only I had sunk from unconsciousness into
+    the perfect peace of death! But even that idea made me quake.
+    _He_ was _there_, and I had such a horror of him, that it seemed
+    for a moment that I would rather live forever than to encounter
+    him again, even in a world where the secrets of all hearts lie
+    open.
+
+    "'Did not father forgive you?' murmured Emma, marking perhaps
+    the expression of my face.
+
+    "I smiled a bitter smile.
+
+    "'Do not ever let us talk about father,' I prayed. 'He has
+    condemned me to this house, and that will make me remember him
+    sufficiently without words.'
+
+    "She rose horror-stricken.
+
+    "'O Hermione!' she murmured; 'O Hermione!' and hid her face in
+    her hands and wept.
+
+    "But I lay silent, tearless.
+
+    "When the funeral procession passed out of the house without
+    us, the people stared. But no thought of there being anything
+    back of this seeming disrespect, save the caprice of two very
+    whimsical girls, seemed to strike the mind of any one. The paper
+    which had held the antidote I had long ago picked up from the
+    laboratory floor; while the open drawer with the packet in it
+    marked _Poison_ had doubtless been shut by Doris on her first
+    entrance into the room after his death. For I not only found it
+    closed, but I never heard any one speak of it, or of any
+    peculiar symptoms attending my father's death.
+
+    "But the arrow was in my heart for all that, and for weeks my
+    life was little more than a nightmare. All the pride which had
+    upheld me was gone. I felt myself a crushed woman. The pall
+    which my father had thrown over me in his self-inflicted death,
+    hung heavy and stifling about me. I breathed, but it seemed to
+    be in gasps, and when exhausted nature gave way and I slept, it
+    was to live over again in dreams those last fearful moments of
+    his life, and hear, with even more distinctness than in my
+    waking hours, the words of the final curse with which he sank to
+    the floor.
+
+    "I had not deserved it--that I felt; but I suffered all the
+    same, and suffered all the more that I could take no confidant
+    into my troubles. Emma, with her broken life, had had
+    disappointments enough without this revelation of a father's
+    vindictiveness, and though it might have eased me for the moment
+    to hear her words of sympathy, I knew that I should find it
+    harder to face her day by day, if this ghost of horror once rose
+    between us. No; the anguish was mine, and must be borne by me
+    alone. So I crushed it down into my heart and was silent.
+
+    "Meantime the command which had been laid upon me by my father,
+    never to leave the house, was weaving a chain about me I soon
+    found it impossible to break. Had I immediately upon his death
+    defied his will and rushed frenziedly out of the gate, I might
+    have grown to feel it easy to walk the streets again in the face
+    of a curse which should never have been laid upon me. But the
+    custom of obeying his dying mandate soon got its hold upon me,
+    and I could not overcome it. At the very thought of crossing the
+    threshold I would tremble; and though when I looked at Emma
+    heroically sharing my fate without knowing the reasons for my
+    persistency, I would dream for a moment of breaking the spell
+    those dying lips had laid upon me, I always found myself drawing
+    back in terror, almost as if I had been caught by fleshless
+    fingers.
+
+    "And so the weeks passed and we settled into the monotonous
+    existence of an uninterrupted seclusion. What had been the
+    expression of my self-will, became now a species of expiation.
+    For though I had not deserved the awful burden which had been
+    imposed upon me of a father's death and curse, I had deserved
+    punishment, and this I now saw, and this I now endeavored to
+    meet, with something like the meekness of repentance. I accepted
+    my doom, and tried not to dwell so much upon my provocations as
+    upon the temper with which I met them, and the hardness with
+    which I strove to triumph over my disappointments. And in doing
+    this I became less hard, preparing my heart, though I did not
+    know it, for that new seed of love which fate was about to drop
+    into it.
+
+    "Mr. Etheridge, I have told you all my story. If it strikes you
+    with dismay and you shrink in your noble manhood from a woman
+    whom, rightfully or wrongfully, is burdened with the weight of a
+    father's death, do not try to overcome that shrinking or defy
+    that dismay. We could never be happy if you did. Nothing but
+    whole-souled love will satisfy me or help me to forget the
+    shadows that bear so heavily upon my head. You say you love me,
+    but your emotions upon reading this letter will prove to
+    yourself what is the true strength and nature of your feelings.
+    Let them, then, have their honest way. If they are in my favor I
+    shall be the happiest girl alive, but if they lead you to go by
+    on the other side of the street, then will I strive to bear this
+    sorrow also, as one who has been much to blame for the evils
+    which have befallen her."
+
+That was all. As Frank folded the last sheet and put it and the rest
+quietly away in his pocket, Edgar saw, or thought he saw, that happier
+hours were about to dawn for Hermione Cavanagh. It made him think of his
+own love and of the claims of the gentle Emma.
+
+"Frank," said he, with the effort of a reticent man compelled at last
+to make an admission, "if you are going to the Cavanaghs, I
+think--I--will--go--with you."
+
+Frank started and leaped forward warmly with outstretched hand. But
+before their two palms could meet, the door was violently opened and a
+messenger came panting in with the announcement:
+
+"Dr. Sellick's wanted. Hermione Cavanagh is at the point of death."
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+IN EXTREMITY.
+
+
+Frank and Edgar were equally pale as they reached the Cavanagh house. No
+time had been lost on the way, and yet the moments had been long enough
+for them both to be the prey of the wildest conjectures. The messenger
+who had brought the startling news of Hermione's illness knew nothing
+concerning the matter beyond the fact that Doris, their servant, had
+called to him, as he was passing their house, to run for Dr. Sellick, as
+Miss Hermione was dying. They were therefore entirely in the dark as to
+what had happened, and entered the house, upon their arrival, like men
+for whom some terrible doom might be preparing.
+
+The first person they encountered was Huckins. He was standing in the
+parlor window, rubbing his hands slowly together and smiling very softly
+to himself. But when he saw the two young men, he came forward with a
+cringing bow and an expression of hypocritical grief, which revived all
+Frank's distrust and antipathy.
+
+"Oh, sir," he exclaimed to Frank, "you here? You should not have come;
+indeed you should not. Sad case," he added, turning to the Doctor; "very
+sad case, this which we have upstairs. I fear we are going to lose the
+dear young lady." And he wiped his half-shut eyes with his fine white
+handkerchief.
+
+"Let me see her; where is she?" cried the Doctor, not stopping to look
+around him, though the place must have been full of the most suggestive
+associations.
+
+"Doris will show you. She was in the laboratory when I saw her last. A
+dangerous place for a young lady who has been jilted by her lover!" And
+he turned a very twinkling eye on Frank.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Frank. "The laboratory! The place where---- O
+Edgar, go to her, go at once."
+
+But Edgar was already half-way upstairs, at the top of which he was met
+by Doris.
+
+"What is this?" he cried. "What has happened to Miss Cavanagh?"
+
+"Come and see," she said. "O that she should go out of the house first
+in this way!"
+
+Alarmed more by the woman's manner than her words, Dr. Sellick hurried
+forward and entered the open laboratory door almost without realizing
+that in another instant he would be in the presence of Emma. And when he
+did see her, and met the eyes he had not looked into since that night a
+year before when she listened to his vows with such a sweet and bashful
+timidity, he hardly felt the shock of the change observable in her, for
+the greater shock her sister's appearance inspired. For Hermione lay on
+that same old couch which had once held her father, ill to
+speechlessness, and though the Doctor did not know what had brought her
+to this condition, he began to suspect and doubt if he were in time to
+revive her.
+
+"What has she taken?" he demanded. "Something, or she would not be as
+low as this without more warning."
+
+Emma, quaking, put a little piece of paper in his hand.
+
+"I found this in her pocket," she whispered. "It was only a little while
+ago. It is quite empty," said she, "or you would have had two patients."
+
+He stared at her, hardly taking in her words. Then he leaped to the
+door.
+
+"Frank," he cried, tossing down a slip of paper on which he had hastily
+written a word, "go with this to the druggist at once! Run, for moments
+are precious!"
+
+They heard a shout in answer; then the noise of the front door opening
+and shutting, and the sound of rapidly departing steps.
+
+"Thank God!" the young physician murmured, as he came back into the
+laboratory, "that I studied chemistry with Mr. Cavanagh, or I might not
+know just what antidote was required here."
+
+"Look!" Emma whispered; "she moved, when you said the word _Frank_."
+
+The Doctor leaned forward and took Emma's hand.
+
+"If we can rouse her enough to make her speak, she will be saved. When
+did she take that powder?"
+
+"I fear she took it this morning, shortly after--after nine o'clock;
+but she did not begin to grow seriously ill till an hour ago, when she
+suddenly threw up her arms and shrieked."
+
+"And didn't you know; didn't you suspect----"
+
+"No, for she said nothing. She only looked haggard and clung to me;
+clung as if she could not bear to have me move an inch away from her
+side."
+
+"And how long has she been unconscious and in that clammy, cold sweat?"
+
+"A little while; just before we sent for you. I--I hated to disturb you
+at first, but life is everything, and----"
+
+He gave her one deep, reassuring look.
+
+"Emma," he softly murmured, "if we save your sister, four hearts shall
+be happy. See if you can make her stir. Tell her that Frank is here, and
+wants to see her."
+
+Emma, with a brightening countenance, leaned over and kissed Hermione's
+marble-like brow.
+
+"Hermione," she cried, "Hermione! Frank wants you; he is tired of
+waiting. Come, dear; shall I not tell him you will come?"
+
+A quiver at the word _Frank_, but that was all.
+
+"It is Frank, dear; Frank!" Emma persisted. "Rouse up long enough just
+to see him. He loves you, Hermione."
+
+Not even a quiver now. Dr. Sellick began to turn pale.
+
+"Hermione, will you leave us now, just as you are going to be happy?
+Listen, listen to Emma. You know I have always told you the truth. Frank
+is here, ready to love you. Wake, darling; wake, dearest----"
+
+There was no use. No marble could be more unresponsive. Dr. Sellick
+rushed in anguish to the door. But the step he heard there was that of
+Huckins, and it was Huckins' face he encountered at the head of the
+stairs.
+
+"Is she dead?" cried that worthy, bending forward to look into the room.
+"I was afraid, _very_ much afraid, you could not do any good, when I saw
+how cold she was, poor dear."
+
+The Doctor, not hearing him, shouted out: "The antidote! the antidote!
+Why does not Frank come!"
+
+At that instant Frank was heard below: "Am I in time?" he gasped. "Here
+it is; I ran all the way"; and he came rushing up the stairs just as
+Huckins slipped from the step where he was and fell against him.
+
+"Oh," whimpered that old hypocrite, "I beg your pardon; I am so
+agitated!" But his agitation seemed to spring mainly from the fact that
+the antidote Frank brought was in powder and not in a bottle, which
+might have been broken in their encounter.
+
+Dr. Sellick, who saw nothing but the packet Frank held, grasped the
+remedy and dashed back into the room. Frank followed and stood in
+anguished suspense within the open doorway. Huckins crouched and
+murmured to himself on the stair.
+
+"Can we get her to take it? Is there hope?" murmured Emma.
+
+No word came in reply; the Doctor was looking fixedly at his patient.
+
+"Frank," he said solemnly, "come and take her hand in yours. Nothing
+else will ever make her unlock her lips."
+
+Frank, reeling in his misery, entered and fell at her feet.
+
+"Hermione," he endeavored to say, but the word would not come. Breaking
+into sobs he took her hand and laid his forehead upon it. Would that
+anguish of the beloved one arouse her? Dr. Sellick and Emma drew near
+together in their anxiety and watched. Suddenly a murmur escaped from
+the former, and he bent rapidly forward. The close-locked lips were
+parting, parting so slowly, so imperceptibly, that only a physician's
+eye could see it. Waiting till they were opened enough to show the
+pearly teeth, he stooped and whispered in Frank's ear. Instantly the
+almost overwhelmed lover, roused, saw this evidence of existing life,
+and in his frenzied relief imprinted one wild kiss upon the hand he
+held. It seemed to move her, to reach her heart, to stay the soul just
+hovering on the confines of life, for the lips parted further, the lids
+of the eyes trembled, and before the reaction came, Dr. Sellick had
+succeeded in giving her a few grains of the impalpable powder he was
+holding.
+
+"It will either kill or restore her," said he. "In five minutes we
+shall know the result."
+
+And when at the end of those five minutes they heard a soft sigh, they
+never thought, in their sudden joy and relief, to look for the sneaking
+figure trembling on the staircase, who, at this first sign of reviving
+life in one he thought dead, slid from his station and went creeping
+down the stairs, with baffled looks that would have frightened even
+Doris had she seen them.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+IN THE POPLAR WALK.
+
+
+Two days had passed. Hermione was sitting in the cheerful sitting-room
+with the choicest of flowers about her and the breeze from the open
+window fluttering gayly in her locks. She was weak yet, but there was
+promise of life in her slowly brightening eye, and from the language of
+the smile which now and then disturbed the lines of her proud lips,
+there was hope of happiness in the heart which but two short days before
+had turned from life in despair.
+
+Yet it was not a perfect hope, or the smiles would have been deeper and
+more frequent. She had held a long talk with Frank, but he had not
+touched upon a certain vital question, perhaps because he felt she had
+not yet the strength to argue it. He was her lover and anticipated
+marrying her, but he had not said whether he expected her to disobey her
+father and leave her home. She felt that he must expect this; she also
+felt that he had the right to do so; but when she thought of yielding to
+his wishes, the old horror returned to her, and a suffocating feeling of
+fear, as if it would never be allowed. The dead have such a hold upon
+us. As the pleasure of living and the ecstasy of love began to make
+themselves felt again in her weakened frame, she could not refrain from
+asking herself by what right she contemplated taking up the joys of
+life, who had not only forfeited them by her attempt at suicide, but who
+had been cursed by a father and doomed by his will to perpetual
+imprisonment. Had he not said, "Let not hatred, let not _love_, lead you
+to leave these doors"? How then presume to think of it or dream that she
+could be happy with such remembrances as hers ever springing up to
+blight her life? She wished, oh! how she wished, that Frank would not
+ask her to leave her home. Yet she knew this was weakness, and that
+soon, at the next interview, perhaps, she would have to dash his hopes
+by speaking of her fears. And so Hermione was not perfectly happy.
+
+Emma, on the contrary, was like a bird loosed from a cage. She sang,
+yes, sang as she flitted up and down the stairs, and once Hermione
+started and blushed with surprise as her voice in a merry peal of
+laughter came from the garden. Such a sound had not been heard in that
+house for a year; such a sound seemed an anomaly there. Yet how sweet it
+was, and how it seemed to lift the shadows.
+
+There was another person who started as this unusual note of merriment
+disturbed the silence of the garden. It was Huckins, who was slowly
+walking up and down beneath the poplars. He was waiting for Doris, and
+this sound went through him like an arrow.
+
+"Laughter," he muttered, shaking his trembling hands in menace towards
+her. "That is a sound I must crush. It speaks too much of hope, and hope
+means the loss to me of all for which I have schemed for years. Why
+didn't that poison work? Why did I let that doctor come? I might have
+locked the door against him and left them to hunt for the key. But I was
+afraid; that Etheridge is so ready to suspect me."
+
+He turned and walked away from the house. He dreaded to hear that
+silvery sound again.
+
+"If she had died, as I had every reason to suspect after such a dose,
+Emma would have followed her in a day. And then who could have kept me
+out of my property? Not Etheridge, for all his hatred and suspicion of
+me." He shook his hand again in menace and moved farther down the path.
+
+As his small black figure disappeared up the walk Doris appeared at the
+kitchen door. She also looked cheerful, yet there was a shade of anxiety
+in her expression as she glanced up the walk.
+
+"He says he is going away," she murmured. "The shock of Miss Hermione's
+illness was too much for him, poor man! and he does not seem to consider
+how lonesome I will be. If only he had asked me to go with him! But then
+I could not have left the young ladies; not while they stick to this old
+horror of a house. What is it, Miss Emma?"
+
+"A four-leaved clover! one, two, _three_ of them," cried her young
+mistress from the lawn at the side of the house. "We are in luck! Times
+are going to change for us all, I think."
+
+"The best luck we can have is to quit this house forever," answered
+Doris, with a boldness unusual on her lips.
+
+"Ah," returned Emma, with her spirits a little dashed, "I cannot say
+about that, but we will try and be happy in it."
+
+"Happy in it!" repeated Doris, but this time to herself. "I can never be
+happy in it, now I have had my dreams of pleasure abroad." And she left
+the kitchen door and began her slow walk towards the end of the garden.
+
+Arrived at the place where Huckins waited for her, she stopped.
+
+"Good afternoon," said she. "Pleasant strolling under these poplars."
+
+He grunted and shook his head slowly to and fro.
+
+"Nothing is very pleasant here," said he. "I have stood it as long as I
+can. My nieces are good girls, but I have failed to make them see
+reason, and I must leave it now to these two lovers of theirs to do what
+they can."
+
+"And do you think they will succeed? That the young ladies will be
+influenced by them to break up their old habits?"
+
+This was what Huckins did think, and what was driving him to extremity,
+but he veiled his real feelings very successfully under a doleful shake
+of the head.
+
+"I do not know," said he. "I fear not. The Cavanagh blood is very
+obstinate, very obstinate indeed."
+
+"Do you mean," cried Doris, "that they won't leave the house to be
+married? That they will go on living here in spite of these two young
+gentlemen who seem to be so fond of them?"
+
+"I do," said he, with every appearance of truth. "I don't think anything
+but fire will ever drive them out of this house."
+
+It was quietly said, almost mournfully, but it caused Doris to give a
+sudden start. Looking at him intently, she repeated "Fire?" and seemed
+to quake at the word, even while she rolled it like a sweet morsel under
+her tongue.
+
+He nodded, but did not further press the subject. He had caught her look
+from the corner of his eye, and did not think it worth while to change
+his attitude of innocence.
+
+"I wish," he insinuated, "there was another marriage which could take
+place."
+
+"Another marriage?" she simpered.
+
+"I have too much money for one to spend," said he. "I wish I knew of a
+good woman to share it."
+
+Doris, before whose eyes the most dazzling dreams of wealth and
+consequence at once flashed, drooped her stout figure and endeavored to
+look languishing.
+
+"If it were not for my duty to the young ladies," sighed she.
+
+"Yes, yes," said he, "you must never leave them."
+
+She turned, she twisted, she tortured her hands in her endeavor to keep
+down the evidences of her desire and her anxiety.
+
+"If--if this house should be blown down in a storm or--or a fire should
+consume it as you say, they would have to go elsewhere, have to marry
+these young men, have to be happy in spite of themselves."
+
+"But what cyclones ever come here?" he asked, with his mockery of a
+smile. "Or where could a fire spring from in a house guarded by a
+Doris?"
+
+She was trembling so she could not answer. "Come out here again at six
+o'clock," said she; "they will miss me if I stay too long now. Oh, sir,
+how I wish I could see those two poor loves happy again!"
+
+"How I wish you could!" said he, and there was nothing in his tone for
+her ears but benevolence.
+
+As Huckins crept from the garden-gate he ran against Frank, who was on
+his way to the station.
+
+"Oh, sir," he exclaimed, cringing, "I am sure I beg your pardon. Going
+up to town, eh?"
+
+"Yes, and I advise you to do the same," quoth the other, turning upon
+him sharply. "The Misses Cavanagh are not well enough at present to
+entertain visitors."
+
+"You are no doubt right," returned Huckins with his meekest and most
+treacherous aspect. "It is odd now, isn't it, but I was just going to
+say that it was time I left them, much as I love the poor dears. They
+seem so happy now, and their prospects are so bright, eh?"
+
+"I hope so; they have had trouble enough."
+
+"Um, um, they will go to Flatbush, I suppose, and I--poor old outcast
+that I am--may rub my hands in poverty."
+
+He looked so cringing, and yet so saturnine, that Frank was tempted to
+turn on his heel and leave him with his innuendoes unanswered. But his
+better spirit prevailing, he said, after a moment's pregnant silence:
+
+"Yes; the young ladies will go to Flatbush, and the extent of the
+poverty you endure will depend upon your good behavior. I do not think
+either of your nieces would wish to see you starve."
+
+"No, no, poor dears, they are very kind, and the least I can do is to
+leave them. Old age and misery are not fit companions for youth and
+hope, are they, Mr. Etheridge?"
+
+"I have already intimated what I thought about that."
+
+"So you have, so you have. You are such a lawyer, Mr. Etheridge, such an
+admirable lawyer!"
+
+Frank, disgusted, attempted to walk on, but Huckins followed close after
+him.
+
+"You do not like me," he said. "You think because I was violent once
+that I envy these sweet girls their rights. But you don't know me, Mr.
+Etheridge; you don't know my good heart. Since I have seen them I have
+felt very willing to give up my claims, they are such nice girls, and
+will be so kind to their poor old uncle."
+
+Frank gave him a look as much as to say he would see about that, but he
+said nothing beyond a short "What train do you take?"
+
+As Huckins had not thought seriously of taking any, he faltered for a
+moment and then blurted out:
+
+"I shall get off at eight. I must say good-by to the young ladies, you
+know."
+
+Frank, who did not recognize this _must_, looked at his watch and said:
+
+"You have just a half hour to get the train with me; you had better take
+it."
+
+Huckins, a little startled, looked doubtfully at the lawyer and
+hesitated. He did not wish to arouse his antagonism or to add to his
+suspicion; indeed it was necessary to allay both. He therefore, after a
+moment of silent contemplation of the severe and inscrutable face before
+him, broke into a short wheedling laugh, and saying, "I had no idea my
+company was so agreeable," promised to make what haste he could and
+catch the six o'clock train if possible.
+
+But of course it was not possible. He had his second interview with
+Doris to hold, and after that was over there were the young ladies to
+see and impress with the disinterested state of his feelings. So that it
+was eight o'clock before he was ready to leave the town. But he did
+leave it at that hour, though it must have been with some intention of
+returning, or why did he carry away with him the key of the side-door of
+the old Cavanagh mansion?
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+THE FINAL TERROR.
+
+
+A week went by and Frank returned to Marston full of hope and definite
+intention. He had notified the Surrogate of the discovery of the real
+heirs to the Wakeham estate, and he had engaged workmen to put in order
+the old house in Flatbush against the arrival of the youthful claimants.
+All that there now remained to do was to induce the young ladies to
+leave the accursed walls within which they had so long immured
+themselves.
+
+Edgar was awaiting him at the station, and together they walked up the
+street.
+
+"Is it all right?" asked Frank. "Have you seen them daily?"
+
+"Every day but to-day. You would hardly know Emma."
+
+"And--and Hermione?"
+
+"She shows her feelings less, but she is evidently happier than she has
+been for a year."
+
+"And her health?"
+
+"Is completely re-established."
+
+"Have you kept your word? Have you talked of everything but what we
+propose to do?"
+
+"I never break my word."
+
+"And they? Have they said anything about leaving the house, or of going
+to Flatbush, or--or----"
+
+"No; they have preserved as close a silence as ourselves. I imagine they
+do not think it proper to speak till we have spoken first."
+
+"It may be; but I should have been pleased if you could have told me
+that Hermione had been seen walking outside the gate."
+
+"You would?"
+
+"Yes. I dread the struggle which I now see before me. It is the first
+step which costs, and I was in hopes she would have taken this in my
+absence."
+
+"Yes, it would have prevented argument. But perhaps you will not have to
+argue. She may be merely waiting for the support of your arm."
+
+"Whatever she is waiting for, she takes her first step down the street
+to-night. What a new world it will open before her!" And Frank
+unconsciously quickened his pace.
+
+Edgar followed with a less impatient step but with fully as much
+determination. Pride was mingled with his love, and pride demanded that
+his future wife should not be held in any bonds forged by the obstinacy
+or the superstitious fears of a wayward sister.
+
+They expected to see the girls at the windows, but they found the
+shutters closed and the curtains drawn. Indeed, the whole house had a
+funereal look which staggered Frank and made even Edgar stare in
+astonishment. "It was not like this yesterday," he declared. "Do they
+not expect you?"
+
+"Yes, if my telegram was delivered."
+
+"Let us see at once what is the matter."
+
+It was Doris who came to the door. When her eyes fell upon the two young
+men, especially upon Frank, her whole countenance changed.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Etheridge, is it you?" she cried. "I thought--I understood----"
+She did not say what, but her relieved manner made quite an impression
+on Frank, although it was, of course, impossible for him to suspect what
+a dangerous deed she had been contemplating at that very moment.
+
+"Are the young ladies well?" he asked, in his haste to be relieved from
+his anxiety.
+
+"Oh, yes, quite well," she admitted, somewhat mysteriously. "They are in
+there," she added, pointing to the parlor on the left.
+
+Frank and Edgar looked at each other. They had always before this been
+received in the cheerful sitting-room.
+
+"If something is not soon done to make Miss Hermione leave the house,"
+Doris whispered passionately to Frank as she passed him, "there will be
+worse trouble here than there has ever been before."
+
+"What do you mean?" he demanded, gliding swiftly after her and catching
+her by the arm just as she reached the back hall.
+
+"Go in and see," said she, "and when you come out tell me what success
+you have had. For if you fail, then----"
+
+"Then what----"
+
+"Providence must interpose to help you."
+
+She was looking straight at him, but that glance told him nothing. He
+thought her words strange and her conduct strange, but everything was
+strange in this house, and not having the key to her thoughts, the word
+_Providence_ did not greatly startle him.
+
+"I will see what I can do," said he, and returning to Edgar, who had
+remained standing by the parlor-door, he preceded him into that gloomy
+apartment.
+
+The girls were both there, seated, as Frank perceived with a certain
+sinking of the heart, in the farthest and dimmest corner of this most
+forbidding place. Emma was looking towards them, but Hermione sat with
+downcast eyes and an air of discouragement about her Frank found it hard
+to behold unmoved.
+
+"Hermione," said he, advancing into the middle of the room, "have you no
+welcome for me?"
+
+Trembling with sudden feeling, she rose slowly to her feet; and her eyes
+lifted themselves painfully to his.
+
+"Forgive me," she entreated, "I have had such a shock."
+
+"Shock?"
+
+"Yes. Look at my head! look at my hair!"
+
+She bent forward; he hastened to her side and glanced at the rich locks
+towards which she pointed. As he did so, he recoiled in sudden awe and
+confusion. "What does it mean?" he asked. There were gray spots in those
+dusky tresses, spots which had never been there before.
+
+"The fingers of a ghost have touched me," she whispered. "Wherever they
+fell, a mark has been left, and those marks sear my brain."
+
+And then Frank noticed, with inward horror, that the spots were regular
+and ran in a distinct circle about her head.
+
+"Hermione," he cried, "has your imagination carried you so far? Ghost?
+Do you believe in ghosts?"
+
+"I believe in anything _now_," she murmured.
+
+Frightened by her shudders and dazed by words he found it impossible to
+treat lightly with those mysterious marks before him, Frank turned for
+relief to Emma, who had risen also and stood a few steps behind them,
+with her face bent downward though the Doctor pressed close at her side.
+
+"Do you understand her?" said Frank.
+
+With an effort Emma moved forward. "It has frightened _me_," she
+whispered.
+
+"What has? Let us hear all about it," demanded the Doctor, speaking for
+the first time.
+
+Hermione gave him a wistful glance. "We are wretched girls," said she.
+"If you expected to relieve us from the curse, it is impossible; my
+father will not have it so."
+
+"Your father!" quoth both of the young men, appalled not at the
+superstition thus evinced, but at the effect they saw it was likely to
+have upon her mind.
+
+"Did you think you saw _him_?" added Frank. "When? Where?"
+
+"In the laboratory--last night. I did not see him but I felt him; felt
+him strike my head with his fingers and drag me back. It was worse than
+death! I shall never get over it."
+
+"Tell me the particulars; explain the whole matter to me. Imagination
+plays us ghastly tricks sometimes. Were you alone? Was it late?"
+
+"Why didn't I come here this morning?" cried Edgar.
+
+"It was long after midnight. I had received your letter and could not
+sleep, so I went into the laboratory, as we often do, to walk. It was
+the first time I had been there since I was ill, and it made me tremble
+to cross its hated threshold, but I had a question to decide, and I
+thought I ought to decide it there. But I trembled, as I say, and my
+hand shook so as I opened the door that I was more disturbed than
+astonished when my light went suddenly out, leaving me in total
+darkness. As I was by this time inside the laboratory I did not turn
+back to relight my candle, for the breeze I presently felt blowing
+through the room convinced me that this would be idle, and that till the
+window was shut, which let in such a stream of air, any attempt to bring
+a light into the room would be attended by the same results. I therefore
+moved rapidly across the room to the window, and was about to close it
+when I was suddenly arrested, and my arms were paralyzed by the feeling
+of a presence in the room behind my back. It was so vivid, so clear to
+my thoughts, that I seemed to see it, though I did not turn from the
+window. It was that of an old man--my father's,--and the menace with
+which the arms were lifted froze the blood in my veins.
+
+"I had merited it; I had been near to breaking his command. I had
+meditated, if I had not decided, upon a sudden breaking away from the
+bondage he had imposed upon me; I had been on the point of daring his
+curse, and now it was to fall upon me. I felt the justice of his
+presence and fell, as if stricken, on my knees.
+
+"The silence that followed may have been short, and it may have been
+long. I was almost unconscious from fright, remorse, and apprehension.
+But when I did rouse and did summon courage to turn and crawl from the
+room, I was conscious of the thing following me, and would have
+screamed, but that I had no voice. Suddenly I gave a rush; but the
+moment I started forward I felt those fingers fall upon my head and draw
+me back, and when I did escape it was with a force that carried me
+beyond the door and then laid me senseless on the floor; for I am no
+longer strong, Mr. Etheridge, and the hatred of the dead is worse than
+that of the living."
+
+"You had a dream, a fearful dream, and these marks prove its
+vividness," declared Edgar. "You must not let your life be ruined by any
+such fantasies."
+
+"Oh, that it had been a dream," moaned Hermione, "but it was more than
+that, as we can prove."
+
+"Prove?"
+
+"Come to the laboratory," cried Emma, suddenly. "There is something we
+want to show you there; something which I saw early this morning when I
+went in to close the window Hermione did not shut."
+
+The young men, startled, did not wait for a second bidding; they
+followed the two girls immediately up-stairs.
+
+"No one has been up these stairs but Doris and ourselves since you went
+down them a week ago," declared Hermione, as they entered the
+laboratory. "Now look at the lid of the mahogany desk--my father's
+desk."
+
+They all went over to it, and Emma, pointing, seemed to ask what they
+thought of it. They did not know what to think, for there on its even
+surface they beheld words written with the point of a finger in the
+thick dust which covered it; and the words were legible and ran thus:
+
+"In your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in your remorse
+see that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for hatred, dare to cross
+the threshold, or I will denounce you in the grave where I shall be
+gone, and my curse shall be upon you."
+
+"My father's words to me in the dreadful hour of his death," whispered
+Hermione. "You may remember them, Mr. Etheridge; they were in the letter
+I wrote you."
+
+Frank did remember them quite well, and for a moment he, like Edgar,
+stood a little dazed and shaken by a mystery he could not immediately
+fathom. But only for a moment. He was too vigorous, and his
+determination was too great, for him to be daunted long by even an
+appearance of the supernatural. So leaping forward, with a bright laugh,
+he drew his hand across the menacing words, and, effacing them at once,
+cried with a confident look at Hermione:
+
+"So will I erase them from your heart if you only will let me,
+Hermione."
+
+But she pointed with an awful look at her hair.
+
+"Can you take these spots out also? Till you can, do not expect me to
+follow the beck of any hand which would lead me to defy my father's
+curse by leaving this house."
+
+At this declaration both men turned pale, and unconsciously moved
+towards each other with a single thought. Had they looked at the door,
+they would have seen the inquisitive face of Doris disappear towards the
+staircase, with that air of determination which only ends in action. But
+they only saw each other and the purpose which was slowly developing in
+each of their minds.
+
+"Come, Hermione," urged Frank, "this is no place for you. If you are
+going to stay in this house, I am going to stay with you; but this room
+is prohibited; you shall never enter it again."
+
+He did not know how truly he spoke.
+
+"Come," said Edgar, in his turn, to Emma, "we have had all the horrors
+we want; now let us go down-stairs and have a little cheerful talk in
+the sitting-room."
+
+And Emma yielded; but Hermione hung back.
+
+"I dread to go down," said she; "this seems the only place in which I
+can say farewell."
+
+But Frank was holding out his hand, and she gradually gave in to its
+seduction and followed him down-stairs into the sitting-room, which was
+fast growing dusky.
+
+"Now," said he, without heeding Emma and the Doctor, who had retreated
+to one of the farther windows, "if you wish to say farewell, I will
+listen to you; but before you speak, hear what I have to say. In a
+certain box which came with me this day from New York, and which is now
+at Mr. Lothrop's, there lies a gown of snowy satin made with enough lace
+to hide any deficiencies it may have in size or fit. With this gown is a
+veil snowy as itself, and on the veil there lies a wreath of orange
+blossoms, while under the whole are piled garments after garments,
+chosen with loving care by the only sister I have in the world, for the
+one woman in that world I wish to make my wife. If you love me,
+Hermione, if you think my devotion a true one, fly from this nest of
+hideous memories and superstitious fears, and in that place where you
+are already expected, put on these garments I have brought you, and with
+them a crown of love, joy, and hope, which will mean a farewell, not to
+me, but to the old life forever."
+
+But Hermione, swaying aside from him, cried: "I cannot, I cannot; the
+rafters would fall if I tried to pass the door."
+
+"Then," said Frank, growing in height and glowing with purpose, "they
+shall fall first on me." And seizing her in his arms, he raised her to
+his breast and fled with her out of the room and out of the house, her
+wild shriek of mingled terror and love trailing faintly after them till
+he stopped on the farther side of the gate, which softly closed behind
+them.
+
+Emma, who was taken as much by surprise as her sister had been, looked
+at the empty place where Hermione had so lately stood, and cowered low,
+as if the terrible loneliness of the house, now _she_ was gone, crushed
+upon her like a weight. Then she seized Edgar by the hand and ran out
+also; and Edgar pulled the great door to behind them, and the Cavanagh
+mansion, for the first time in a year, was a shell without inmates, a
+body without soul.
+
+They found Hermione standing in the dark shadows cast here in the street
+by the overhanging trees. Frank's arm was about her and she looked both
+dazed and pleased.
+
+When she saw Emma she started.
+
+"Oh, it releases you too," she cried; "that is happiness. I did not
+like to see you suffer for my sins." Then she drooped a little, then she
+looked up, and a burden seemed to roll away from her heart. "The rafters
+did not fall," she murmured, "and you, Frank, will keep all spectres
+away from me, won't you? He can never reach me when I am by your side."
+
+"Never, never," was the glad reply. And Frank began to draw her gently
+up the street. "It is but a step," said he, "to Mr. Lothrop's; no one
+will ever notice that you are without a hat."
+
+"But----"
+
+"You are expected," he whispered. "You are never to go back into your
+old home again."
+
+Again he did not know how truly he spoke.
+
+"Emma, Emma," appealed Hermione, "shall I do this thing, without any
+preparation, any thought, anything but my love and gratitude to make it
+a true bridal?"
+
+"Ah, Hermione, in making yourself happy, you make me so; therefore I am
+but a poor adviser."
+
+"What, will you be married too, to-night, at the minister's house with
+me?"
+
+"No, dear, but soon, very soon, as soon as you can give me a home to be
+married in."
+
+"Then let us make her happy," cried Hermione. "It is the only
+reparation I can offer for all I have made her suffer."
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+AN EVENTFUL QUARTER OF AN HOUR.
+
+
+When Edgar closed the front door of the Cavanagh mansion behind himself
+and Emma, the noise he made was slight, and yet it was heard by ears
+that were listening for it in the remote recesses of the kitchen.
+
+"The gentlemen are gone," decided Doris, without any hesitation. "They
+could not move Miss Hermione from her resolves, and I did not think they
+could. Nothing can move her but fire, and fire there shall be, and that
+to-night."
+
+Stealing towards the front of the house, she listened. All was quiet.
+She instantly concluded that the young ladies were in the parlor, and
+glided back to a certain closet under the stairs, into which she peered
+with a satisfied air. "Plenty of stuff there," she commented, and
+shivered slightly as she thought of putting a candle to the combustible
+pile before her. Shutting the door, she crept to another spot where lay
+a huge pile of shavings, and again she nodded with satisfaction at the
+sight. Finally, she went into the shed, and when she came back she
+walked like one who sees the way clear to her purposes.
+
+"I promised Mr. Huckins I would not start the blaze till after
+midnight," said she almost audibly, as she passed again towards the
+front. "He was so afraid if the fire got started early that the
+neighbors would put it out before any harm was done. But I haven't the
+nerve to do such a thing with the young ladies up-stairs. They might not
+get down safely, or I might not have the power to wake them. No, I will
+fire it now, while they are in the parlor, and trust to its going like
+tinder, as it will. Won't the young gentlemen thank me, and won't the
+young ladies do the same, when they get over the shock of being suddenly
+thrown upon the world."
+
+Chuckling softly to herself, she looked up-stairs and finally ran
+quietly up. With a woman's thoughtfulness she remembered certain
+articles which she felt were precious to the young ladies. To gather
+these together would be the work of a moment, and it would ease her
+conscience. Going first to Hermione's room, she threw such objects as
+she considered valuable into a sheet, and tied them up. Then she tossed
+the bundle thus made out of one of the side windows. Running to Emma's
+room, she repeated her operations; and letting her own things go,
+hastened down-stairs and went again into the kitchen. When she reissued
+it was with a lighted candle in her hand.
+
+Meantime from the poplar walk two eyes were gazing with restless
+eagerness upon the house. They belonged to Huckins, who, unknown to
+Etheridge, unknown to Doris even, had returned to Marston for the
+purpose of watching the development of his deadly game. He had stolen
+into the garden and was surveying the place, not so much from any
+expectation of fire at this hour, as because his whole interest was
+centred in the house and he could not keep his eyes from it.
+
+But suddenly, as he looks, he detects something amiss, and starting
+forward, with many muttered exclamations, he draws nearer and nearer to
+the house, which he presently enters by means of the key he draws from
+his pocket. As he does so, a faint smell of smoke comes to his nostrils,
+causing him to mutter: "She is three hours too soon; what does she mean
+by it?"
+
+The door by which he had entered was at the end of a side hall. He
+found the house dark, but he was so accustomed to it by this time, that
+he felt no hesitancy as to his steps. He went at first to the
+sitting-room and looked in; there was no one there. Then he proceeded to
+the parlor, which was also empty. "Good," thought he, "they are
+up-stairs"; and he slid with his quiet step to the staircase, up which
+he went like the ghost or spectre which he had perhaps simulated the
+night before. There was a door at the top of the first landing, and he
+had some thoughts of simply locking this, and escaping. But, he said to
+himself, it would be much more satisfactory to first make sure that the
+two girls were really above, before he locked them in; so he crept up
+farther, and finally came to Hermione's room. The door was shut, but
+from the light which shone through the keyhole (a light which Doris had
+left there in her haste and trepidation), he judged Hermione to be
+within, so he softly turned the key that was in the lock, and glided
+away to Emma's apartment. This was also closed, but there was a light
+there, also from the same cause, so there being no key visible he drew a
+heavy piece of furniture across the doorway, and fled back to the
+stairs. As he reached them, a blinding gust of smoke swept up through
+the crevices beneath his feet, but he thought he saw his way clearly,
+and rushed for the landing. But just as he reached it, the door--the
+door he had intended to close behind him--shut sharply in his face, and
+he found himself imprisoned. With a shriek, he dashed against it; but it
+was locked; and just as he staggered upright again from his violent
+efforts to batter it down, a red-hot flame shot up through a gap in the
+staircase and played about his feet. He yelled, and dashed up the
+stairs. If he were to suffer for his own crime, he would at least have
+companions in his agony. Calling upon Emma and Hermione, he rushed to
+the piece of furniture with which he had barred the former's apartment,
+and frantically drew it aside. The door remained shut; there was no
+agonized one within to force it open the moment the pressure against it
+was relieved. Stupefied, he staggered away and ran up the twisted
+staircase to Hermione's room. Perhaps they were here, perhaps they were
+both here. But all was silent within, and when he had entered and
+searched the space before him, even beneath and behind the curtains of
+the bed for its expected occupant, and found no one there, he uttered
+such a cry as that house had never listened to, not even when it echoed
+to its master's final yell of rage and despair.
+
+Doris meanwhile was suffering her own punishment below. When she had
+lighted the three several piles she had prepared, she fled into the
+front of the house to spread the alarm and insure the safety of her
+young mistresses. Passing the staircase she had one quick thought of the
+likelihood there might be of Hermione or Emma dashing up those stairs in
+an endeavor to save some of their effects, so she quietly locked the
+door above in order to prevent them. But when she had done this she
+heard a shriek, and, startled, she was about to unlock it again when a
+vivid flame shot up between her and the door making any such attempt
+impossible. Aghast with terror, fearing that by some error of
+calculation she had shut her young ladies up-stairs after all, she went
+shrieking their names through the lower rooms and halls, now filling
+with smoke and lurid with shooting jets of flame. As no response came
+and she could find no one in any of the rooms, her terror grew to frenzy
+and she would have dashed up-stairs at the risk of her life. But it was
+too late; the stairs had already fallen, and the place was one volcano
+of seething flame.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+THE SPECTRE OF THE LABORATORY.
+
+
+Had Hermione been allowed time to think, she might have drawn back from
+such a sudden marriage. But Frank, who recognized this possibility,
+urged her with gentle speed down the street, and never ceased his
+persuasions till they stood at the minister's door. Mrs. Lothrop, who
+had a heart for romance, opened it, and seeing the blushing face and
+somewhat dishevelled appearance of Hermione, she cast one comprehending
+look at Frank, and drew them in joyfully.
+
+"You are to be married, are you not?" she asked, welcoming the whole
+four with the gayest of bows. "I congratulate you, dear, and will take
+you right away to my best room, where you will find your box and
+everything else you may need. I am so glad you decided to come here
+instead of having us go to you. It is so pleasant and so friendly and
+the Doctor does so dread to go out evenings now."
+
+Small chatter is ofttimes our salvation. Under this little lady's fire
+of bright talk Hermione lost the tragic feelings of months and seemed to
+awake to the genialities of life. Turning her grand head towards the
+smiling little woman she let her own happiness shine from the corners of
+her mouth, and then following the other's lead, allowed herself to be
+taken to a cosy chintz-furnished room whose home-like aspect struck warm
+upon her heart and completed the work of her rejuvenation.
+
+Emma, who was close behind her, laughed merrily.
+
+"Such a chrysalis of a bride," cried she. "Where are the wings with
+which to turn her into a butterfly?"
+
+Mrs. Lothrop showed them a great box, and then left them. Emma, lifting
+the lid, glanced shyly at Hermione, who blushed scarlet. Such a lovely
+array of satin, lace, and flowers! To these girls, who had denied
+themselves everything and been denied everything, it was a glimpse of
+Paradise. As one beautiful garment after another was taken out,
+Hermione's head drooped lower in her delight and the love it inspired,
+till at last the tears came and she wept for a few minutes
+unconstrainedly. When this mood had passed, she gave herself up to
+Emma's eager fingers, and was dressed in her bridal garments.
+
+The clock was striking ten when Frank's impatience was rewarded by the
+first glimpse of his bride. She came into the room with Emma and Mrs.
+Lothrop, and her beauty, heightened by her feelings to the utmost, was
+such as to fill him with triumph and delight.
+
+To Edgar it was a revelation, for always before, he had seen the scar
+before he did her; but now he was compelled to see her first, for the
+scar was hidden under fold upon fold of lace.
+
+"No wonder Frank is daft over her," thought he, "if she always looks
+like this to him."
+
+As for Frank, he bowed with all his soul to the radiant vision, and
+then, leading her up to Mr. Lothrop, awaited the sacred words which were
+to make them one. As they were being uttered, strange noises broke out
+in the street, and the cry of "Fire! fire!" rang out; but if the bride
+and bridegroom heard the ominous word they did not betray the fact, and
+the ceremony proceeded. It was soon over, and Frank turned to kiss his
+wife; but just as Emma advanced with her congratulations, the front door
+burst open and a neighbor's voice was heard to cry in great excitement:
+
+"The Cavanagh house is burning, and we are all afraid that the girls
+have perished in the flames."
+
+It was Emma who gave the one shriek that responded to these words.
+Hermione seemed like one frozen. Edgar, dashing to the door, looked out,
+and came slowly back.
+
+"Yes, it is burning," said he. "Emma will have to go with you to New
+York."
+
+"It is a judgment," moaned Hermione, clinging to Frank, who perhaps felt
+a touch of superstitious awe himself. "It is a judgment upon me for
+forgetting; for being happy; for accepting a deliverance I should not
+have desired."
+
+But at these words Frank regained his composure.
+
+"No," corrected he, "it is your deliverance made complete. Without it
+you might have had compunctions and ideas of returning to a place to
+which you felt yourself condemned. Now you never can. It is a merciful
+Providence."
+
+"Let us go and see the old house burn," she whispered. "If it is a
+funeral pyre of the past, let us watch the dying embers. Perhaps my
+fears will vanish with them."
+
+He did not refuse her; so Emma relieved her of her veil and threw about
+her a long cloak, and together they stepped into the street. The glare
+that struck their faces made them shrink, but they soon overcame the
+first shock and hastened on.
+
+The town was in a tumult, but they saw nothing save the flaming skeleton
+of their home, with the gaunt outlines of the poplars shining vividly in
+the scarlet glow.
+
+As they drew near to it the front of the house fell in, and Hermione,
+with a shriek, pointed to the corner where the laboratory had been.
+
+"My father! my father! See! see! he is there! He is denouncing me! Look
+at his lifted arms! It _is_ a judgment, it is----"
+
+Her words trailed off in choking horror. They all looked, and they all
+saw the figure of an old man writhing against a background of flame. Was
+it a spectre? Was it the restless ghost of the old professor showing
+itself for the last time in the place of his greatest sin and suffering?
+Even Edgar was silent, and Frank refused to say, while the girls,
+sinking upon their knees with inarticulate moans and prayers, seemed to
+beg for mercy and cry against this retribution, when suddenly Hermione
+felt herself clasped in two vigorous arms, and a voice exclaimed in the
+husky accents of great joy:
+
+"You are here! You are here! You are not burned! O my dear young
+mistresses, my dear, dear young mistresses!"
+
+Hermione, pushing the weeping Doris back, pointed again towards the
+toppling structure, and cried:
+
+"Do you see who is there? My father, Doris, my father! See how he
+beckons and waves, see----"
+
+Doris, startled, gave a cry in her turn:
+
+"It is Mr. Huckins! O save----"
+
+But the words were lost in the sudden crash of falling walls. The scene
+of woe was gone, and the dayspring of hope had risen for the two girls.
+
+
+
+
+_A Selection from the Catalogue of_
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+Complete Catalogue sent on application
+
+
+Works by Anna Katharine Green
+
+
+THE LEAVENWORTH CASE. A Lawyer's Story.
+
+    New Illustrated Edition. Cr. 8vo.                           $1.50
+
+    "She has worked up a _cause c�l�bre_ with a fertility of device and
+    ingenuity of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar
+    Allan Poe."--_Christian Union_.
+
+
+BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "... She has never succeeded better in baffling the
+    reader."--_Boston Christian Register_.
+
+
+THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES. A Story of New York Life.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "'The Sword of Damocles' is a book of great power, which far
+    surpasses either of its predecessors from her pen, and places
+    her high among American writers. The plot is complicated and is
+    managed adroitly.... In the delineation of characters she has
+    shown both delicacy and vigor."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+
+X. Y. Z. and 7 TO 12: DETECTIVE STORIES.
+
+    16^o,                                                       $1 00
+
+    "Well written and extremely exciting and captivating.... She is
+    a perfect genius in the construction of a plot."--_N. Y.
+    Commercial Advertiser_.
+
+
+HAND AND RING.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "It is a tribute to the author's genius that she never tires and
+    never loses her readers.... It moves on clean and healthy.... It
+    is worked out powerfully and skilfully."--N. Y. Independent.
+
+
+A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting story. The readers
+    are held spell-bound until the last page."--_Cincinnati
+    Commercial_.
+
+
+THE MILL MYSTERY.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+
+THE HOUSE OF THE WHISPERING PINES.
+
+    Cr. 8vo. Colored Frontispiece. Cloth                        $1.50
+
+    "As good as 'The Leavenworth Case.'"--_N. Y. Globe_.
+
+
+THE OLD STONE HOUSE, AND OTHER STORIES.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                              75 cents
+
+    "It is a bundle of quite cleverly constructed pieces of fiction,
+    with which an idle hour may be pleasantly passed."--_N. Y.
+    Independent._
+
+
+CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY. With frontispiece.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "'Cynthia Wakeham's Money' is a story notable even among the
+    many vigorous works of Anna Katharine Green."--_New York Sun._
+
+
+MARKED "PERSONAL."
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "The ingenious plot is built up with all the skill of the writer
+    of 'The Leavenworth Case' to the very last chapter, which
+    contains the surprising solutions of several mysteries."
+
+
+MISS HURD: AN ENIGMA.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "A strong and interesting novel in an entirely new field of
+    romance."
+
+
+THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK.
+
+    32^o, limp cloth                                         50 cents
+
+    "The story is entertainingly told...."--_Cincinnati Tribune_.
+
+
+DR. IZARD.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "Those who have read her other books will not need to be urged
+    to read this; they will be eager to do so, and we assure them a
+    very interesting story."--_Boston Times_.
+
+
+THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "Startling in its ingenuity and its wonderful plot."--_Buffalo
+    Enquirer_.
+
+
+LOST MAN'S LANE.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+
+AGATHA WEBB.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1.25
+
+
+ONE OF MY SONS.
+
+    16^o, cloth, illustrated                                    $1.50
+
+
+THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE, AND OTHER POEMS.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+
+RISIFI'S DAUGHTER.
+
+    A Drama. 16^o, cloth                                        $1 00
+
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London
+
+
+
+
+Who?
+
+By Elizabeth Kent
+
+Author of "The House Opposite"
+
+_Cr. 8vo. Frontispiece in Color by John Cassel $1.25 net. By mail,
+$1.40_
+
+
+A more thrilling detective story than "Who?" has seldom appeared. Not
+only does it deal with the story of a crime such as the ablest detective
+would find it difficult to solve, but there is an added mystery
+concerning the identity of one of the principal suspects, regarding
+which the reader's opinion will change a dozen times before arriving at
+the truth. Every page teems with incidents, forming a succession of
+dramatic scenes that will keep the reader's interest at white heat
+throughout.
+
+    G. P. Putnam's Sons
+    New York      London
+
+
+
+
+The Adventures of Miss Gregory
+
+By Perceval Gibbon
+
+_12^o. With 8 Illustrations. $1.35 net By mail, $1.50_
+
+
+The rousing volume of dare-devil enterprise that Perceval Gibbon has
+written is a book full of freshness and surprise. Miss Gregory knocks
+about the world, and wherever she goes she is in the thick of things. At
+one time it is a Nihilist plot which fascinates her; at another time, a
+plague-stricken community that calls her. She is in Africa when the
+slaver is secretly plying his trade, and again, in wicked Be�ra, at the
+opportune moment she interposes her calm, forceful personality between
+an aggressive ruffian and his friendless victim. Wherever she goes she
+attracts adventure to her. The book which recounts her extraordinary
+experiences is full of graphic pictures of men and women in widely
+separated parts of the globe, and the characterization of these is as
+forceful and impressive as the narrative in which they play their parts
+is swift in movement and enthralling in theme.
+
+    G. P. Putnam's Sons
+    New York      London
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Punctuation has been standardised. Spelling and hyphenation have been
+retained as in the original publication except as follows:
+
+    Page 19
+    before her head could and its _changed to_
+    before her head could add its
+
+    Page 87
+    advisable to have an an inventory _changed to_
+    advisable to have an inventory
+
+    Page 120
+    heeded neither his works nor _changed to_
+    heeded neither his words nor
+
+    Page 135
+    so may their hearts be. Wont _changed to_
+    so may their hearts be. Won't
+
+    Page 144
+    Hermoine, and then I could _changed to_
+    Hermione, and then I could
+
+    Page 209
+    "since Hariet Smith is _changed to_
+    "since Harriet Smith is
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Cynthia Wakeham's Money, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY ***
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Cynthia Wakeham's Money, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+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: Cynthia Wakeham's Money
+
+Author: Anna Katharine Green
+
+Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36758]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1>Cynthia Wakeham's Money</h1>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<div id="box">
+<h3>WORKS BY<br />
+<span class="small">Anna Katharine Green</span></h3>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">The Leavenworth Case.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">A Strange Disappearance.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">The Sword of Damocles.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Hand and Ring.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">The Mill Mystery.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Behind Closed Doors.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Cynthia Wakeham's Money.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Marked "Personal."</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Miss Hurd: An Enigma.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Dr. Izard.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">That Affair Next Door.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Lost Man's Lane.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Agatha Webb.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">One of My Sons.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">The Old Stone House.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">7 to 12 and X. Y. Z.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">The Defence of the Bride, and Other Poems.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Risifi's Daughter. A Drama.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">The House of the Whispering Pines.</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br />
+<span class="smcap">New York &amp; London</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="600" height="466" alt="&quot;&lsquo;Let me have it!&rsquo; cried Huckins. &lsquo;I have lived in this
+hole for fifteen years, till I have almost rotted away like the place
+itself!&rsquo;&quot;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">"'Let me have it!' cried Huckins. 'I have lived in this
+hole for fifteen years, till I have almost rotted away like the place
+itself!'"</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<p class="tp"><span class="title">Cynthia Wakeham's<br />
+Money</span><br />
+<br />
+By<br />
+<br />
+<span class="author">Anna Katharine Green</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="books">Author of "The Leavenworth Case," "Hand and Ring,"<br />
+"The Mill Mystery," "The Defence of the Bride," etc.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 40px;">
+<img src="images/swirl.png" width="40" height="39" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="tp"><span class="pub1">G. P. Putnam's Sons</span><br />
+<span class="pub2">New York and London</span><br />
+<span class="oldenglish">The Knickerbocker Press</span></p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="tp"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1892<br />
+<br />
+BY<br />
+<br />
+ANNA KATHARINE GREEN<br />
+<br />
+Entered at Stationers' Hall, London<br />
+<span class="smcap">By G. P. Putnam's Sons</span><br />
+<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+
+Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by<br />
+The Knickerbocker Press, New York<br />
+<span class="smcap">G. P. Putnam's Sons</span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<table summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+<th class="thc1" colspan="3">BOOK I.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<th class="thc2" colspan="3">A VILLAGE MYSTERY.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<th class="thr1">CHAPTER.</th>
+<th class="thr2" colspan="2">PAGE.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">I.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Woman's Face</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#i">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">II.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Lawyer's Adventure</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ii">10</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">III.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Continuation of a Lawyer's Adventure</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iii">27</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">IV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Flint and Steel</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iv">36</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">V.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Difficulties</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#v">45</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">VI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Young Men's Fancies</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vi">55</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">VII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Way Opens</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vii">71</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">VIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Search and Its Results</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#viii">80</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">IX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Two Sisters</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ix">92</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">X.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Doris</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#x">97</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Love</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xi">109</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">How Much did It Mean?</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xii">122</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Fresh Doubts</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiii">142</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">In the Night Watches</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiv">150</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<th class="thc1" colspan="3">BOOK II.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<th class="thc2" colspan="3">THE SECRET OF THE LABORATORY.</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Beginning of Changes</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xv">158</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Strange Visitor</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvi">169</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XVII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Two Conversations</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvii">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XVIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Suspense</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xviii">193</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XIX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Discovery</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xix">205</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Devil's Cauldron</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xx">213</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">In the Laboratory</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxi">232</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Steel Meets Steel</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxii">239</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A Growing Horror</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxiii">249</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXIV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Father and Child</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxiv">261</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Edgar and Frank</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxv">272</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<th class="thc1" colspan="3">BOOK III.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<th class="thc2" colspan="3">UNCLE AND NIECE.</th>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXVI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The White Powder</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxvi">279</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXVII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Hand of Huckins</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxvii">286</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXVIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">In Extremity</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxviii">300</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXIX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">In the Poplar Walk</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxix">307</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Final Terror</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxx">315</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXXI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">An Eventful Quarter of an Hour</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxxi">327</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr1">XXXII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Spectre of the Laboratory</span></td>
+<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xxxii">332</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span>
+CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY.</h2>
+
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+
+<h2><a name="i" id="i"></a><span class="sub1">BOOK I.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub2">A VILLAGE MYSTERY.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub3">I.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">A WOMAN'S FACE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was verging towards seven o'clock. The train had just left Marston
+station, and two young men stood on the platform surveying with very
+different eyes the stretch of country landscape lying before them. Frank
+Etheridge wore an eager aspect, the aspect of the bright, hopeful,
+energetic lawyer which he was, and his quick searching gaze flashed
+rapidly from point to point as if in one of the scattered homes within
+his view he sought an answer to some problem at present agitating his
+mind. He was a stranger in Marston.</p>
+
+<p>His companion, Edgar Sellick, wore a quieter air, or at least one more
+restrained. He was a native of the place, and was returning to it after
+a short and fruitless absence in the west, to resume his career of
+physician amid the scenes of his earliest associations. Both were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> tall,
+well-made, and handsome, and, to draw at once a distinction between them
+which will effectually separate their personalities, Frank Etheridge was
+a man to attract the attention of men, and Edgar Sellick that of women;
+the former betraying at first glance all his good qualities in the
+keenness of his eye and the frankness of his smile, and the latter
+hiding his best impulses under an air of cynicism so allied to
+melancholy that imagination was allowed free play in his behalf. They
+had attended the same college and had met on the train by chance.</p>
+
+<p>"I am expecting old Jerry, with a buggy," announced Edgar, looking
+indifferently down the road. The train was on time but Jerry was not,
+both of which facts were to be expected. "Ah, here he comes. You will
+ride to the tavern with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"With pleasure," was Frank's cheerful reply; "but what will you do with
+Jerry? He's a mile too large, as you see yourself, to be a third party
+in a buggy ride."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt about that, but Jerry can walk; it will help to rob him of a
+little of his avoirdupois. As his future physician I shall prescribe it.
+I cannot have you miss the supper I have telegraphed for at Henly's."</p>
+
+<p>And being a determined man, he carried this scheme through, to Jerry's
+manifest but cheerfully accepted discomfort. As they were riding off,
+Edgar leaned from the buggy, and Frank heard him say to his panting
+follower:</p>
+
+<p>"Is it known in town that I am coming to-night?" To which that panting
+follower shrilly replied: "Ay, sir, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> Tim Jones has lit a bond-fire
+and Jack Skelton hoisted a flag, so glad they be to have you back. Old
+Dudgeon was too intimate with the undertaker, sir. We hopes as you will
+turn a cold shoulder to him&mdash;the undertaker, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>At which Frank observed his friend give one of his peculiar smiles which
+might mean so little and might mean so much, but whatever it meant had
+that touch of bittersweet in it which at once hurts and attracts.</p>
+
+<p>"You like your profession?" Frank abruptly asked.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar turned, surveyed the other questioningly for a moment, then
+remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"Not as you like yours. Law seems to be a passion with you."</p>
+
+<p>Frank laughed. "Why not? I have no other love, why not give all my heart
+to that?"</p>
+
+<p>Edgar did not answer; he was looking straight before him at the lights
+in the village they were now rapidly approaching.</p>
+
+<p>"How strange it is we should have met in this way," exclaimed the young
+lawyer. "It is mighty fortunate for me, whatever it may be for you. You
+know all the people in town, and perhaps can tell me what will shorten
+my stay into hours."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you call that fortunate?" interrogated the other with one of his
+quiet smiles.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no, only from a business view. But you see, Edgar, it is so short
+a time since I have thought of anything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> but business, that I have
+hardly got used to the situation. I should be sorry, now I come to think
+of it, to say good-by to you before I heard how you had enjoyed life
+since we parted on a certain Commencement day. You look older, while
+I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He laughed. How merry the sound, and how the growing twilight seemed to
+brighten at it! Edgar looked for a moment as if he envied him that
+laugh, then he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You are not tripped up by petty obstacles. You have wings to your feet
+and soar above small disappointments. My soles cling to the ground and
+encounter there difficulty after difficulty. Hence the weariness with
+which I gain anything. But your business here,&mdash;what is it? You say I
+can aid you. How?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is a long story which will help to enliven our evening meal. Let
+us wait till then. At present I am interested in what I see before me.
+Snug homes, Edgar, and an exquisite landscape."</p>
+
+<p>The other, whose face for the last few minutes had been gradually
+settling into sterner and sterner lines, nodded automatically but did
+not look up from the horse he was driving.</p>
+
+<p>"Who lives in these houses? Old friends of yours?" Frank continued.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar nodded again, whipped his horse and for an instant allowed his
+eyes to wander up and down the road.</p>
+
+<p>"I used to know them all," he acknowledged, "but I suppose there have
+been changes."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+His tone had altered, his very frame had stiffened. Frank looked at him
+curiously.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to be in a hurry," he remarked. "I enjoy this twilight drive,
+and&mdash;haloo! this is an odd old place we are coming to. Suppose you pull
+up and let me look at it."</p>
+
+<p>His companion, with a strange glance and an awkward air of
+dissatisfaction, did as he was bid, and Frank leaning from the buggy
+gazed long and earnestly at the quaint old house and grounds which had
+attracted his attention. Edgar did not follow his example but sat
+unmoved, looking fixedly at the last narrow strip of orange light that
+separated night from day on the distant horizon.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel as if I had come upon something uncanny," murmured Frank. "Look
+at that double row of poplars stretching away almost as far as we can
+see? Is it not an ideal Ghost's Walk, especially in this hour of falling
+shadows. I never saw anything so suggestive in a country landscape
+before. Each tree looks like a spectre hob-nobbing with its neighbor.
+Tell me that this is a haunted house which guards this avenue. Nothing
+less weird should dominate a spot so peculiar."</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, I did not know you were so fanciful," exclaimed the other,
+lashing his horse with a stinging whip.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, wait! I am not fanciful, it is the place that is curious. If you
+were not in a hurry for your supper you would see it too. Come, give it
+a look. You may have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> observed it a hundred times before, but by this
+light you must acknowledge that it looks like a place with a history.
+Come, now, don't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Edgar drew in his horse for the second time and impatiently allowed his
+glance to follow in the direction indicated by his friend. What he saw
+has already been partially described. But details will not be amiss
+here, as the house and its surroundings were really unique, and bespoke
+an antiquity of which few dwellings can now boast even in the most
+historic parts of Connecticut.</p>
+
+<p>The avenue of poplars which had first attracted Frank's attention had
+this notable peculiarity, that it led from nowhere to nowhere. That is,
+it was not, as is usual in such cases, made the means of approach to the
+house, but on the contrary ran along its side from road to rear, thick,
+compact, and gruesome. The house itself was of timber, and was both gray
+and weather-beaten. It was one of the remnants of that old time when a
+family homestead rambled in all directions under a huge roof which
+accommodated itself to each new projection, like the bark to its tree.
+In this case the roof sloped nearly to the ground on one side, while on
+the other it beetled over a vine-clad piazza. In front of the house and
+on both sides of it rose a brick wall that, including the two rows of
+trees within its jealous cordon, shut off the entire premises from those
+of the adjoining neighbors, and gave to the whole place an air of
+desolation and remoteness which the smoke rising from its one tall
+chimney did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> seem to soften or relieve. Yet old as it all was, there
+was no air of decay about the spot, nor was the garden neglected or the
+vines left untrimmed.</p>
+
+<p>"The home of a hermit," quoth Frank. "You know who lives there of
+course, but if you did not I would wager that it is some old scion of
+the past&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he stopped, suddenly his hand was laid on the horse's rein
+falling somewhat slack in the grasp of his companion. A lamp had at that
+instant been brought into one of the front rooms of the house he was
+contemplating, and the glimpse he thus caught of the interior attracted
+his eyes and even arrested the gaze of the impatient Edgar. For the
+woman who held the lamp was no common one, and the face which showed
+above it was one to stop any man who had an eye for the beautiful, the
+inscrutable, and the tragic. As Frank noted it and marked its exquisite
+lines, its faultless coloring, and that air of profound and mysterious
+melancholy which made it stand out distinctly in the well-lighted space
+about it, he tightened his grip on the reins he had snatched, till the
+horse stood still in the road, and Edgar impatiently watching him,
+perceived that the gay look had crept from his face, leaving there an
+expression of indefinable yearning which at once transfigured and
+ennobled it.</p>
+
+<p>"What beauty! What unexpected beauty!" Frank whispered at last. "Did you
+ever see its like, Edgar?"</p>
+
+<p>The answer came with Edgar's most cynical smile:</p>
+
+<p>"Wait till she turns her head."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+And at that moment she did turn it. On the instant Frank drew in his
+breath and Edgar expected to see him drop his hand from the reins and
+sink back disillusionized and indifferent. But he did not. On the
+contrary, his attitude betrayed a still deeper interest and longing, and
+murmuring, "How sad! poor girl!" he continued to gaze till Edgar, with
+one strange, almost shrinking look in the direction of the unconscious
+girl now moving abstractedly across the room, tore the reins from his
+hands and started the horse again towards their place of destination.</p>
+
+<p>Frank, whom the sudden movement seemed to awaken as from a dream,
+glanced for a moment almost angrily at his companion, then he settled
+back in his seat, saying nothing till the lights of the tavern became
+visible, when he roused himself and inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that girl, Edgar, and how did she become so disfigured?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," was the short reply; "she has always been so, I believe,
+at least since I remember seeing her. It looks like the scar of a wound,
+but I have never heard any explanation given of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Her name, Edgar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione Cavanagh."</p>
+
+<p>"You know her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somewhat."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you"&mdash;the words came with a pant, shortly, intensely, and as if
+forced from him&mdash;"in love&mdash;with her?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+"No." Edgar's passion seemed for the moment to be as great as that of
+the other. "How came you to think of such a thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;because," Frank whispered almost humbly, "you seemed so short
+in your replies, and because, I might as well avow it, she seems to me
+one to command the love of all men."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sirs, here I be as quick as you," shouted a voice in their rear,
+and old Jerry came lumbering forward, just in time to hold their horse
+as they alighted at the tavern.</p>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+<a name="ii" id="ii"></a><span class="sub3">II</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Supper</span> that night did not bring to these two friends all the enjoyment
+which they had evidently anticipated. In the first place it was
+continually interrupted by greetings to the young physician whose
+unexpected return to his native town had awakened in all classes a
+decided enthusiasm. Then Frank was moody, he who was usually gaiety
+itself. He wanted to talk about the beautiful and unfortunate Miss
+Cavanagh, and Edgar did not, and this created embarrassment between
+them, an embarrassment all the more marked that there seemed to be some
+undefined reason for Edgar's reticence not to be explained by any
+obvious cause. At length Frank broke out impetuously:</p>
+
+<p>"If you won't tell me anything about this girl, I must look up some one
+who will. Those cruel marks on her face have completed the charm of her
+beauty, and not till I know something of their history and of her, will
+I go to sleep to-night. So much for the impression which a woman's face
+can make upon an unsusceptible man."</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," observed the other, coldly, "I should say that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> your time might
+be much better employed in relating to me the cause for your being in
+Marston."</p>
+
+<p>The young lawyer started, shook himself, and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, true, I had forgotten," said he, and supper being now over he got
+up and began pacing the floor. "Do you know any one here by the name of
+Harriet Smith?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned the other, "but I have been away a year, and many persons
+may have come into town in that time."</p>
+
+<p>"But I mean an old resident," Frank explained, "a lady of years,
+possibly a widow."</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard of such a person," rejoined Edgar. "Are you sure there is
+such a woman in town? I should be apt to know it if there were."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not sure she is here now, or for that matter that she is living,
+but if she is not and I learn the names and whereabouts of any heirs she
+may have left behind her, I shall be satisfied with the results of my
+journey. Harriet Smith! Surely you have heard of her."</p>
+
+<p>"No," Edgar protested, "I have not."</p>
+
+<p>"It is odd," remarked Frank, wrinkling his brows in some perplexity. "I
+thought I should have no trouble in tracing her. Not that I care," he
+avowed with brightening countenance. "On the contrary, I can scarcely
+quarrel with a fact that promises to detain me in your company for a few
+days."</p>
+
+<p>"No? Then your mind has suddenly changed in that regard," Edgar dryly
+insinuated.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+Frank blushed. "I think not," was his laughing reply. "But let me tell
+my story. It may interest you in a pursuit that I begin to see is likely
+to possess difficulties." And lighting a cigar, he sat down with his
+friend by the open window. "I do not suppose you know much about
+Brooklyn, or, if you do, that you are acquainted with that portion of it
+which is called Flatbush. I will therefore explain that this outlying
+village is a very old one, antedating the Revolution. Though within a
+short car-drive from the great city, it has not yet given up its life to
+it, but preserves in its one main street at least, a certain
+individuality which still connects it with the past. My office, as you
+know, is in New York, but I have several clients in Brooklyn and one or
+two in Flatbush, so I was not at all surprised, though considerably put
+out, when one evening, just as I was about to start for the theatre, a
+telegram was handed me by the janitor, enjoining me to come without
+delay to Flatbush prepared to draw up the will of one, Cynthia Wakeham,
+lying, as the sender of the telegram declared, at the point of death.
+Though I knew neither this name, nor that of the man who signed it,
+which was Hiram Huckins, and had no particular desire to change the
+place of my destination at that hour, I had really no good reason for
+declining the business thus offered me. So making a virtue of necessity,
+I gave up the theatre and started instead for Flatbush, which, from the
+house where I lodge in upper New York, is a good hour and a half's ride
+even by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> the way of the bridge and the elevated roads. It was therefore
+well on towards ten o'clock before I arrived in the shaded street which
+in the daylight and in the full brightness of a summer's sun I had
+usually found so attractive, but which at night and under the
+circumstances which had brought me there looked both sombre and
+forbidding. However I had not come upon an errand of pleasure, so I did
+not spend much time in contemplating my surroundings, but beckoning to
+the conductor of the street-car on which I was riding, I asked him if he
+knew Mrs. Wakeham's house, and when he nodded, asked him to set me down
+before it. I thought he gave me a queer look, but as his attention was
+at that moment diverted, I could not be sure of it, and before he came
+my way again the car had stopped and he was motioning to me to alight.</p>
+
+<p>"'That is the house,' said he, pointing to two huge gate-posts
+glimmering whitely in the light of a street-lamp opposite, and I was on
+the sidewalk and in front of the two posts before I remembered that a
+man on the rear platform of the car had muttered as I stepped by him: 'A
+visitor for Widow Wakeham, eh; she <i>must</i> be sick, then!'</p>
+
+<p>"The house stood back a short distance from the street, and as I entered
+the gate, which by the way looked as if it would tumble down if I
+touched it, I could see nothing but a gray mass with one twinkling light
+in it. But as I drew nearer I became aware that it was not a well-kept
+and hospitable mansion towards which I was tending,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> however imposing
+might be its size and general structure. If only from the tangled growth
+of the shrubbery about me and the long dank stalks of the weeds that lay
+as if undisturbed by mortal feet upon the walk, I could gather that
+whatever fortune Mrs. Wakeham might have to leave she had not expended
+much in the keeping of her home. But it was upon reaching the house I
+experienced the greatest surprise. There were walls before me, no doubt,
+and a huge portico, but the latter was hanging as it were by faith to
+supports so dilapidated that even the darkness of that late hour could
+not hide their ruin or the impending fall of the whole structure. So
+old, so uncared-for, and so utterly out of keeping with the errand upon
+which I had come looked the whole place that I instinctively drew back,
+assured that the conductor had made some mistake in directing me
+thither. But no sooner had I turned my back upon the house, than a
+window was thrown up over my head and I heard the strangely eager voice
+of a man say:</p>
+
+<p>"'This is the place, sir. Wait, and I will open the door for you.'</p>
+
+<p>"I did as he bade me, though not without some reluctance. The voice, for
+all its tone of anxiety, sounded at once false and harsh, and I
+instinctively associated with it a harsh and false face. The house, too,
+did not improve in appearance upon approach. The steps shook under my
+tread, and I could not but notice by the faint light sifting through the
+bushes from the lamp on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> the other side of the way, that the balustrades
+had been pulled from their places, leaving only gaping holes to mark
+where they had once been. The door was intact, but in running my hand
+over it I discovered that the mouldings had been stripped from its face,
+and that the knocker, hanging as it did by one nail, was ready to fall
+at the first provocation. If Cynthia Wakeham lived here, it would be
+interesting to know the extent of her wealth. As there seemed to be some
+delay in the opening of the door, I had time to note that the grounds
+(all of these houses have grounds about them) were of some extent, but,
+as I have said, in a manifest condition of overgrowth and neglect. As I
+mused upon the contrast they must afford in the bright daylight to the
+wide and well-kept lawns of the more ambitious owners on either side, a
+footstep sounded on the loose boards which had evidently been flung down
+at one side of the house as a sort of protection to the foot from the
+darkness and mud of the neglected path, and a woman's form swung dimly
+into view, laden with a great pile of what looked to me like brushwood.
+As she passed she seemed to become conscious of my presence, and,
+looking up, she let the huge bundle slip slowly from her shoulders till
+it lay in the darkness at her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"'Are you,' she whispered, coming close to the foot of the steps, 'going
+in there?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' I returned, struck by the mingled surprise and incredulity in
+her tone.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+"She stood still a minute, then came up a step.</p>
+
+<p>"'Are you a minister?' she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' I laughed; 'why?'</p>
+
+<p>"She seemed to reason with herself before saying: 'No one ever goes into
+that house; I thought perhaps you did not know. They won't have any one.
+Would you mind telling me,' she went on, in a hungry whisper almost
+thrilling to hear, coming as it did through the silence and darkness of
+the night, 'what you find in the house? I will be at the gate, sir,
+and&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"She paused, probably awed by the force of my exclamation, and picking
+up her bundle of wet boughs, slunk away, but not without turning more
+than once before she reached the gate. Scarcely had she disappeared into
+the street when a window went up in a neighboring house. At the same
+moment, some one, I could not tell whether it was a man or a woman, came
+up the path as far as the first trees and there paused, while a shrill
+voice called out:</p>
+
+<p>"'They never unlocks that door; visitors ain't wanted.'</p>
+
+<p>"Evidently, if I were not admitted soon I should have the whole
+neighborhood about me.</p>
+
+<p>"I lifted the knocker, but it came off in my hand. Angry at the
+mischance, and perhaps a little moved by the excitement of my position,
+I raised the broken piece of iron and gave a thundering knock on the
+rotten panels before me. Instantly the door opened, creaking ominously
+as it did so, and a man stood in the gap with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> wretched old kerosene
+lamp in his hand. The apologetic leer on his evil countenance did not
+for a moment deceive me.</p>
+
+<p>"'I beg your pardon,' he hurriedly exclaimed, and his voice showed he
+was a man of education, notwithstanding his forlorn and wretched
+appearance, 'but the old woman had a turn just as you came, and I could
+not leave her.'</p>
+
+<p>"I looked at him, and instinct told me to quit the spot and not enter a
+house so vilely guarded. For the man was not only uncouth to the last
+degree in dress and aspect, but sinister in expression and servilely
+eager in bearing.</p>
+
+<p>"'Won't you come in?' he urged. 'The old woman is past talking, but she
+can make signs; perhaps an hour from now she will not be able to do even
+that.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you allude to the woman who wishes to make her will?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' he answered, greedily, 'Cynthia Wakeham, my sister.' And he
+gently pushed the door in a way that forced me to enter or show myself a
+coward.</p>
+
+<p>"I took heart and went in. What poverty I beheld before me in the light
+of that solitary smoking lamp! If the exterior of the house bore the
+marks of devastation, what shall I say of the barren halls and denuded
+rooms which now opened before me? Not a chair greeted my eyes, though a
+toppling stool here and there showed that people sat in this place. Nor
+did I see a table, though somewhere in some remote region beyond the
+staircase I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> heard the clatter of plates, as if eating were also known
+in this home of almost ostentatious penury. Staircase I say, but I
+should have said steps, for the balustrades were missing here just as
+they had been missing without, and not even a rail remained to speak of
+old-time comfort and prosperity.</p>
+
+<p>"'I am very poor,' humbly remarked the man, answering my look of
+perplexity. 'It is my sister who has the money.' And moving towards the
+stairs, he motioned me to ascend.</p>
+
+<p>"Even then I recoiled, not knowing what to make of this adventure; but
+hearing a hollow groan from above, uttered in tones unmistakably
+feminine, I remembered my errand and went up, followed so closely by the
+man, that his breath, mingled with the smell of that vile lamp, seemed
+to pant on my shoulder. I shall never smell kerosene again without
+recalling the sensations of that moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Arriving at the top of the stair, up which my distorted shadow had gone
+before me, I saw an open door and went in. A woman was lying in one
+corner on a hard and uncomfortable bed, a woman whose eyes drew me to
+her side before a word had been spoken.</p>
+
+<p>"She was old and in the last gasp of some fatal disease. But it was not
+this which impressed me most. It was the searching look with which she
+greeted me,&mdash;a piteous, hunted look, like that of some wild animal
+driven to bay and turning upon her conqueror for some signs of
+relenting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> or pity. It made the haggard face eloquent; it assured me
+without a word that some great wrong had been done or was about to be
+done, and that I must show myself at once her friend if I would gain her
+confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Advancing to her side, I spoke to her kindly, asking if she were
+Cynthia Wakeham, and if she desired the services of a lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"She at once nodded painfully but unmistakably, and, lifting her hand,
+pointed to her lips and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"'She means that she cannot speak', explained the man, in a pant, over
+my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Moving a step aside in my disgust, I said to her, not to him:</p>
+
+<p>"'But you can hear?'</p>
+
+<p>"Her intelligent eye responded before her head could
+<a name="add" id="add"></a><ins title="Original has and">add</ins> its
+painful acquiescence.</p>
+
+<p>"'And you have property to leave?'</p>
+
+<p>"'This house', answered the man.</p>
+
+<p>"My eyes wandered mechanically to the empty cupboards about me from
+which the doors had been wrenched and, as I now saw from the looks of
+the fireplace, burned.</p>
+
+<p>"'The ground&mdash;the ground is worth something,' quoth the man.</p>
+
+<p>"'The avidity with which he spoke satisfied me at least upon one
+point&mdash;<i>he</i> was the expectant heir.</p>
+
+<p>"'Your name?' I asked, turning sharply upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"'Hiram Huckins.'</p>
+
+<p>"It was the name attached to the telegram.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+"'And you are the brother of this woman?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, yes.'</p>
+
+<p>"I had addressed him, but I looked at her. She answered my look with a
+steadfast gaze, but there was no dissent in it, and I considered that
+point settled.</p>
+
+<p>"'She is a married woman, then?'</p>
+
+<p>"'A widow; husband died long years ago.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Any children?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No.' And I saw in her face that he spoke the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"'But you and she have brothers or sisters? You are not her only
+relative?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I am the only one who has stuck by her,' he sullenly answered. 'We did
+have a sister, but she is gone; fled from home years ago; lost in the
+great world; dead, perhaps. <i>She</i> don't care for her; ask her.'</p>
+
+<p>"I did ask her, but the haggard face said nothing. The eyes burned, but
+they had a waiting look.</p>
+
+<p>"'To whom do you want to leave your property?' I inquired of her
+pointedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Had she glanced at the man, had her face even changed, or so much as a
+tremor shook her rigid form, I might have hesitated. But the quiet way
+in which she lifted her hand and pointed with one finger in his
+direction while she looked straight at me, convinced me that whatever
+was wrong, her mind was made up as to the disposal of her property. So
+taking out my papers, I sat down on the rude bench drawn up beside the
+bed and began to write.</p>
+
+<p>"The man stood behind me with the lamp. He was so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> eager and bent over
+me so closely that the smell of the lamp and his nearness were more than
+I could bear.</p>
+
+<p>"'Set down the lamp,' I cried. 'Get a table&mdash;something&mdash;don't lean over
+me like that.'</p>
+
+<p>"But there was nothing, actually nothing for him to put the lamp on, and
+I was forced to subdue my disgust and get used as best I could to his
+presence and to his great shadow looming on the wall behind us. But I
+could not get used to her eyes hurrying me, and my hand trembled as I
+wrote.</p>
+
+<p>"'Have you any name but Cynthia?' I inquired, looking up.</p>
+
+<p>"She painfully shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"'You had better tell me what her husband's name was,' I suggested to
+the brother.</p>
+
+<p>"'John Lapham Wakeham,' was the quick reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote down both names. Then I said, looking intently at the dying
+widow:</p>
+
+<p>"'As you cannot speak, you must make signs. Shake your hand when you
+wish to say no, and move it up and down when you wish to say yes. Do you
+understand?'</p>
+
+<p>"She signalled somewhat impatiently that she did, and then, lifting her
+hand with a tremulous movement, pointed anxiously towards a large Dutch
+clock, which was the sole object of adornment in the room.</p>
+
+<p>"'She urges you to hurry,' whispered the man. 'Make it short, make it
+short. The doctor I called in this morning said she might die any
+minute.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+"As from her appearance I judged this to be only too possible, I hastily
+wrote a few words more, and then asked:</p>
+
+<p>"'Is this property all that you have to leave?'</p>
+
+<p>"I had looked at her, though I knew it would be the man who would
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, yes, this house,' he cried. 'Put it strong; this house and all
+there is in it.'</p>
+
+<p>"I thought of its barren rooms and empty cupboards, and a strange fancy
+seized me. Going straight to the woman, I leaned over her and said:</p>
+
+<p>"'Is it your desire to leave all that you possess to this brother? Real
+property and personal, this house, and also everything it contains?'</p>
+
+<p>"She did not answer, even by a sign, but pointed again to the clock.</p>
+
+<p>"'She means that you are to go right on,' he cried. 'And indeed you
+must,' he pursued, eagerly. 'She won't be able to sign her name if you
+wait much longer.'</p>
+
+<p>"I felt the truth of this, and yet I hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"'Where are the witnesses?' I asked. 'She must have two witnesses to her
+signature.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Won't I do for one?' he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' I returned; 'the one benefited by a will is disqualified from
+witnessing it.'</p>
+
+<p>"He looked confounded for a moment. Then he stepped to the door and
+shouted, 'Briggs! Briggs!'</p>
+
+<p>"As if in answer there came a clatter as of falling dishes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> and as
+proof of the slavery which this woman had evidently been under to his
+avarice, she gave a start, dying as she was, and turned upon him with a
+frightened gaze, as if she expected from him an ebullition of wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"'Briggs, is there a light in Mr. Thompson's house?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' answered a gruff voice from the foot of the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"'Go then, and ask him or the first person you see there, if he will
+come in here for a minute. Be very polite and don't swear, or I won't
+pay you the money I promised you. Say that Mrs. Wakeham is dying, and
+that the lawyer is drawing up her will. Get James Sotherby to come too,
+and if he won't do it, somebody else who is respectable. Everything must
+be very legal, sir,' he explained, turning to me, 'very legal.'</p>
+
+<p>"Not knowing what to think of this man, but seeing only one thing to do,
+I nodded, and asked the woman whom I should name as executor. She at
+once indicated her brother, and as I wrote in his name and concluded the
+will, she watched me with an intentness that made my nerves creep,
+though I am usually anything but susceptible to such influences. When
+the document was ready I rose and stood at her side in some doubt of the
+whole transaction. Was it her will I had expressed in the paper I held
+before me, or his? Had she been constrained by his influence to do what
+she was doing, or was her mind free to act and but obeying its natural
+instincts? I determined to make one effort at finding out. Turning
+towards the man, I said firmly:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+"'Before Mrs. Wakeham signs this will she must know exactly what it
+contains. I can read it to her, but I prefer her to read the paper for
+herself. Get her glasses, then, if she needs them, and bring them here
+at once, or I throw up this business and take the document away with me
+out of the house.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But she has no glasses,' he protested; 'they were broken long ago.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Get them,' I cried; 'or get yours,&mdash;she shall not sign that document
+till you do.'</p>
+
+<p>"But he stood hesitating, loth, as I now believe, to leave us together,
+though that was exactly what I desired, which she, seeing, feverishly
+clutched my sleeve, and, with a force of which I should not have thought
+her capable, made wild gestures to the effect that I should not delay
+any longer, but read it to her myself.</p>
+
+<p>"Seeing by this, as I thought, that her own feelings were,
+notwithstanding my doubts, really engaged in the same direction as his,
+I desisted from my efforts to separate the two, if it were only for a
+moment, and read the will aloud. It ran thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"The last will and testament of Cynthia Wakeham, widow of John
+Lapham Wakeham, of Flatbush, Kings County, New York.</p>
+
+<p>"First: I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses to be
+paid.</p>
+
+<p>"Second: I give, devise, and bequeath to my brother, Hiram
+Huckins, all the property, real and personal,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> which I own, or
+to which I may be entitled, at the time of my death, and I
+appoint him the sole executor of this my last will and
+testament.</p>
+
+<p>"Witness my hand this fifth day of June, in the year eighteen
+hundred and eighty-eight.</p>
+
+<div class="willsig">
+<p>"Signed, published, and declared by the
+Testatrix to be her last will and testament,
+in our presence who, at her request and
+in her presence and in the presence of
+each other, have subscribed our names
+hereto as witnesses, on this 5th day of
+June, 1888.</p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>"'Is that the expression of your wishes?' I asked, when I had finished.</p>
+
+<p>"She nodded, and reached out her hand for the pen.</p>
+
+<p>"'You must wait,' said I, 'for the witnesses.'</p>
+
+<p>"But even as I spoke their approach was heard, and Huckins was forced to
+go to the door with the lamp, for the hall was pitch dark and the stairs
+dangerous. As he turned his back upon us, I thought Mrs. Wakeham moved
+and opened her lips, but I may have been mistaken, for his black and
+ominous shadow lay over her face, and I could discern but little of its
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is there anything you want?' I asked her, rising and going to the
+bedside.</p>
+
+<p>"But Huckins was alert to all my movements, if he had stepped for a
+moment away.</p>
+
+<p>"'Give her water,' he cried, wheeling sharply about.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> And pointing to a
+broken glass standing on the floor at her side, he watched me while I
+handed it to her.</p>
+
+<p>"'She mus'n't give out now,' he pursued, with one eye on us and the
+other on the persons coming upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>"'She will not,' I returned, seeing her face brighten at the sound of
+approaching steps.</p>
+
+<p>"'It's Miss Thompson and Mr. Dickey,' now spoke up the gruff voice of
+Briggs from the foot of the steps. 'No other folks was up, so I brought
+them along.'</p>
+
+<p>"The young woman, who at this instant appeared in the doorway, blushed
+and cast a shy look over her shoulder at the fresh-faced man who
+followed her.</p>
+
+<p>"'It's all right, Minnie,' immediately interposed that genial personage,
+with a cheerful smile; 'every one knows we are keeping company and mean
+to be married as soon as the times improve.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, every one knows,' she sighed, and stepped briskly into the room,
+her intelligent face and kindly expression diffusing a cheer about her
+such as the dismal spot had doubtless lacked for years.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard afterward that this interesting couple had been waiting for the
+times to improve, for the last fifteen years."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+<a name="iii" id="iii"></a><span class="sub3">III.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">CONTINUATION OF A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">The</span> two witnesses had scarcely entered the room before the dying woman
+stretched out her hand again for the pen. As I handed it to her and
+placed the document before her on my portfolio, I asked:</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you declare this paper to be your last will and testament and do
+you request these persons to witness it?'</p>
+
+<p>"She bowed a quick acquiescence, and put the pen at the place I pointed
+out to her.</p>
+
+<p>"'Shall I support your hand?' I pursued, fearful she would not have the
+strength to complete the task.</p>
+
+<p>"But she shook her head and wrote her name in hastily, with a feverish
+energy that astonished me. Expecting to see her drop back exhausted if
+not lifeless as the pen left the paper, I drew the document away and
+bent to support her. But she did not need my assistance. Indeed she
+looked stronger than before, and what was still more astonishing, seemed
+even more anxious and burningly eager.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is she holding up till the witnesses have affixed their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> signatures?'
+I inwardly queried. And intent upon relieving her, I hastily explained
+to them the requirements of the case, and did not myself breathe easily
+till I saw their two names below hers. Then I felt that she could rest;
+but to my surprise but one sigh of relief rose in that room, and that
+was from the cringing, cruel-eyed inheritor, who, at the first
+intimation that the document was duly signed and attested, sprang from
+his corner with such a smile that the place seemed to grow hideous, and
+I drew involuntarily back.</p>
+
+<p>"'Let me have it,' were his first words. 'I have lived in this hole, and
+for fifteen years made myself a slave to her whims, till I have almost
+rotted away like the place itself. And now I want my reward. Let me have
+the will.'</p>
+
+<p>"His hand was on the paper and in my surprise I had almost yielded it up
+to him, when another hand seized it, and the dying, gasping woman,
+mumbling and mouthing, pointed for the third time to the clock and then
+to one corner of the paper, trying to make me understand something I
+entirely failed to comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>"'What is it?' I asked. 'What do you want? Is not the will to your
+liking?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, yes,' her frenzied nods seemed to say, and yet she continued
+pointing to the clock and then to the paper while the angry man before
+her stared and muttered in a mixture of perplexity and alarm which added
+no little to the excitement of the harrowing scene.</p>
+
+<p>"'Let me see if I can tell what she wants,' suddenly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> observed the young
+woman who had signed the paper as a witness. And bringing her sweet
+womanly face around where the rolling eye of the woman could see her,
+she asked with friendly interest in her tone, 'Do you wish the time of
+day written on the will?'</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the relief that swept over that poor woman's tortured countenance!
+She nodded and looked up at me so confidingly that in despite of the
+oddity of the request I rapidly penned after the date, the words 'at
+half-past ten o'clock <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>,' and caused the witnesses to note the
+addition.</p>
+
+<p>"This seemed to satisfy her, and she sank back with a sign that I was to
+yield to her brother's demand and give him the paper he coveted, and
+when I hesitated, started up again with such a frenzied appeal in her
+face that in the terror of seeing her die before our eyes, I yielded it
+to his outstretched hand, expecting at the most to see him put it in his
+pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"But no, the moment he felt it in his grasp, he set down the lamp, and,
+without a look in her direction or a word of thanks to me or the two
+neighbors who had come to his assistance, started rapidly from the room.
+Disturbed and doubting my own wisdom in thus yielding to an impulse of
+humanity which may be called weakness by such strong-minded men as
+yourself, I turned to follow him, but the woman's trembling hand again
+stopped me; and convinced at last that I was alarming myself
+unnecessarily and that she had had as much pleasure in making<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> him her
+heir as he in being made so, I turned to pay her my adieux, when the
+expression of her face, changed now from what it had been to one of hope
+and trembling delight, made me pause again in wonder, and almost
+prepared me for the low and thrilling whisper which now broke from her
+lips in distinct tones.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is he gone?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Then you can speak,' burst from the young woman.</p>
+
+<p>"The widow gave her an eloquent look.</p>
+
+<p>"'I have not spoken,' said she, 'for two days; I have been saving my
+strength. Hark!' she suddenly whispered. 'He has no light, he will pitch
+over the landing. No, no, he has gone by it in safety, he has
+reached&mdash;&mdash;' she paused and listened intently, trembling as she did
+so&mdash;'Will he go into <i>that</i> room?&mdash;Run! follow! see if he has dared&mdash;but
+no, he has gone down to the kitchen,' came in quick glad relief from her
+lips as a distant door shut softly at the back end of the house. 'He is
+leaving the house and will never come back. I am released forever from
+his watchfulness; I am free! Now, sir, draw up another will, quick; let
+these two kind friends wait and see me sign it, and God will bless you
+for your kindness and my eyes will close in peace upon this cruel
+world.'</p>
+
+<p>"Aghast but realizing in a moment that she had but lent herself to her
+brother's wishes in order to rid herself of a surveillance which had
+possibly had an almost mesmeric influence upon her, I opened my
+portfolio again, saying:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+"'You declare yourself then to have been unduly influenced by your
+brother in making the will you have just signed in the presence of these
+two witnesses?'</p>
+
+<p>"To which she replied with every evidence of a clear mind&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"'I do; I do. I could not move, I could not breathe, I could not think
+except as he willed it. When he was near, and he was always near, I had
+to do just as he wished&mdash;perhaps because I was afraid of him, perhaps
+because he had the stronger will of the two, I do not know; I cannot
+explain it, but he ruled me and has done so all my life till this hour.
+Now he has left me, left me to die, as he thinks, unfriended and alone,
+but I am strong yet, stronger than he knows, and before I turn my face
+to the wall, I will tear my property from his unholy grasp and give it
+where I have always wanted it to go&mdash;to my poor, lost, unfortunate
+sister.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah,' thought I, 'I see, I see'; and satisfied at last that I was no
+longer being made the minister of an unscrupulous avarice, I hastily
+drew up a second will, only pausing to ask the name of her sister and
+the place of her residence.</p>
+
+<p>"'Her name is Harriet Smith,' was the quick reply, 'and she lived when
+last I heard of her in Marston, a little village in Connecticut. She may
+be dead now, it is so long since I received any news of her,&mdash;Hiram
+would never let me write to her,&mdash;but she may have had children, and if
+so, they are just as welcome as she is to the little I have to give.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+"'Her children's names?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'I don't know, I don't know anything about her. But you will find out
+everything necessary when I am gone; and if she is living, or has
+children, you will see that they are reinstated in the home of their
+ancestors. For,' she now added eagerly, 'they must come here to live,
+and build up this old house again and make it respectable once more or
+they cannot have my money. I want you to put that in my will; for when I
+have seen these old walls toppling, the doors wrenched off, and its
+lintels demolished for firewood, for <i>firewood</i>, sir, I have kept my
+patience alive and my hope up by saying, Never mind; some day Harriet's
+children will make this all right again. The old house which their kind
+grandfather was good enough to give me for my own, shall not fall to the
+ground without one effort on my part to save it. And this is how I will
+accomplish it. This house is for Harriet or Harriet's children if they
+will come here and live in it one year, but if they will not do this,
+let it go to my brother, for I shall have no more interest in it. You
+heed me, lawyer?'</p>
+
+<p>"I nodded and wrote on busily, thinking, perhaps, that if Harriet or
+Harriet's children did not have some money of their own to fix up this
+old place, they would scarcely care to accept their forlorn inheritance.
+Meantime the two witnesses who had lingered at the woman's whispered
+entreaty exchanged glances, and now and then a word expressive of the
+interest they were taking in this unusual affair<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>.</p>
+
+<p>"'Who is to be the executor of <i>this</i> will?' I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"'You,' she cried. Then, as I started in surprise, she added: 'I know
+nobody but you. Put yourself in as executor, and oh, sir, when it is all
+in your hands, find my lost relatives, I beseech you, and bring them
+here, and take them into my mother's room at the end of the hall, and
+tell them it is all theirs, and that they must make it their room and
+fix it up and lay a new floor&mdash;you remember, a new floor&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;' Her
+words rambled off incoherently, but her eyes remained fixed and eager.</p>
+
+<p>"I wrote in my name as executor.</p>
+
+<p>"When the document was finished, I placed it before her and asked the
+young lady who had been acting as my lamp-bearer to read it aloud. This
+she did; the second will reading thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"The last will and testament of Cynthia Wakeham, widow of John
+Lapham Wakeham, of Flatbush, Kings County, New York.</p>
+
+<p>"First: I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses to be
+paid.</p>
+
+<p>"Second: I give, devise, and bequeath all my property to my
+sister, Harriet Smith, if living at my death, and, if not
+living, then to her children living at my death, in equal
+shares, upon condition, nevertheless, that the legatee or
+legatees who take under this will shall forthwith take up their
+residence in the house I now occupy in Flatbush, and continue to
+reside therein for at least<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> one year thence next ensuing. If
+neither my said sister nor any of her descendants be living at
+my death, or if so living, the legatee who takes hereunder shall
+fail to comply with the above conditions, then all of said
+property shall go to my brother, Hiram Huckins.</p>
+
+<p>"Third: I appoint Frank Etheridge, of New York City, sole
+executor of this my last will and testament, thereby revoking
+all other wills by me made, especially that which was executed
+on this date at half-past ten o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>"Witness my hand this fifth day of June, in the year eighteen
+hundred and eighty-eight.</p>
+
+<div class="willsig">
+<p>"Signed, published, and declared
+by the testatrix to be her last will
+and testament, in our presence, who,
+at her request and in her presence
+and in the presence of each other,
+have subscribed our names hereto as
+witnesses, on this 5th day of June,
+1888, at five minutes to eleven <span class="smcap2">P.M.</span></p>
+</div>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>"This was satisfactory to the dying widow, and her strength kept up till
+she signed it and saw it duly attested; but when that was done, and the
+document safely stowed away in my pocket, she suddenly collapsed and
+sank back in a dying state upon her pillow.</p>
+
+<p>"'What are we going to do?' now cried Miss Thompson, with looks of great
+compassion at the poor woman thus bereft, at the hour of death, of the
+natural care of relatives and friends. 'We cannot leave her here alone.
+Has she no doctor&mdash;no nurse?'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+"'Doctors cost money,' murmured the almost speechless sufferer. And
+whether the smile which tortured her poor lips as she said these words
+was one of bitterness at the neglect she had suffered, or of
+satisfaction at the thought she had succeeded in saving this expense, I
+have never been able to decide.</p>
+
+<p>"As I stooped to raise her now fallen head a quick, loud sound came to
+our ears from the back of the house, as of boards being ripped up from
+the floor by a reckless and determined hand. Instantly the woman's face
+assumed a ghastly look, and, tossing up her arms, she cried:</p>
+
+<p>"'He has found the box!&mdash;the box! Stop him! Do not let him carry it
+away! It is&mdash;&mdash;' She fell back, and I thought all was over; but in
+another instant she had raised herself almost to a sitting position, and
+was pointing straight at the clock. 'There! there! look! the clock!' And
+without a sigh or another movement she sank back on the pillow, dead."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+<a name="iv" id="iv"></a><span class="sub3">IV.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">FLINT AND STEEL.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Greatly</span> startled, I drew back from the bed which but a moment before
+had been the scene of such mingled emotions.</p>
+
+<p>"'All is over here,' said I, and turned to follow the man whom with her
+latest breath she had bidden me to stop from leaving the house.</p>
+
+<p>"As I could not take the lamp and leave my companions in darkness, I
+stepped out into a dark hall; but before I had taken a half dozen steps
+I heard a cautious foot descending the back stairs, and realizing that
+it would be both foolish and unsafe for me to endeavor to follow him
+through the unlighted rooms and possibly intricate passages of this
+upper hall, I bounded down the front stairs, and feeling my way from
+door to door, at last emerged into a room where there was a lamp
+burning.</p>
+
+<p>"I had found the kitchen, and in it were Huckins and the man Briggs.
+Huckins had his hand on the latch of the outside door, and from his look
+and the bundle he carried, I judged that if I had been a minute later he
+would have been in full flight from the house.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+"'Put out the light!' he shouted to Briggs.</p>
+
+<p>"But I stepped forward, and the man did not dare obey him, and Huckins
+himself looked cowed and dropped his hand from the door-knob.</p>
+
+<p>"'Where are you going?' I asked, moving rapidly to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"'Isn't she dead?' was his only answer, given with a mixture of mockery
+and triumph difficult to describe.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' I assented, 'she is dead; but that does not justify you in
+flying the house.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And who says I am flying?' he protested. 'Cannot I go out on an errand
+without being told I am running away?'</p>
+
+<p>"'An errand,' I repeated, 'two minutes after your sister has breathed
+her last! Don't talk to me of errands. Your appearance is that of
+flight, and that bundle in your arms looks like the cause of it.'</p>
+
+<p>"His eye, burning with a passion very natural under the circumstances,
+flashed over me with a look of disdain.</p>
+
+<p>"'And what do you know of my appearance, and what is it to you if I
+carry or do not carry a bundle out of this house? Am I not master of
+everything here?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' I cried boldly; then, thinking it might perhaps be wiser not to
+undeceive him as to his position till I had fully sounded his purposes,
+I added somewhat nonchalantly: 'that is, you are not master enough to
+take anything away that belonged to your sister. If you can prove to me
+that there is nothing in that bundle save<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> what is yours and was yours
+before your sister died, well and good, you may go away with it and
+leave your poor dead sister to be cared for in her own house by
+strangers. But while I have the least suspicion that property of any
+nature belonging to this estate is hidden away under that roll of old
+clothes, you stop here if I have to appeal first to the strength of my
+arms and then to that of the law.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But,' he quavered, 'it is mine&mdash;<i>mine</i>. I am but carrying away my own.
+Did you not draw up the will yourself? Don't you know she gave
+everything to me?'</p>
+
+<p>"'What I know has nothing to do with it,' I retorted. 'Did you think
+because you saw a will drawn up in your favor that therefore you had
+immediate right to what she left, and could run away with her effects
+before her body was cold? A will has to be proven, my good man, before
+an heir has any right to touch what it leaves. If you do not know this,
+why did you try to slink away like a thief, instead of walking out of
+the front door like a proprietor? Your manner convicts you, man; so down
+with the bundle, or I shall have to give you in charge of the constable
+as a thief.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You&mdash;&mdash;!' he began, but stopped. Either his fears were touched or his
+cunning awakened, for after surveying me for a moment with mingled doubt
+and hatred, he suddenly altered his manner, till it became almost
+cringing, and muttering consolingly to himself, 'After all it is only a
+delay; everything will soon be mine,' he laid the bundle on the one
+board of the broken table beside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> us, adding with hypocritical meekness:
+'It was only some little keepsakes of my sister, not enough to make such
+a fuss about.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I will see to these <i>keepsakes</i>,' said I, and was about to raise the
+bundle, when he sprang upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"'You&mdash;&mdash;you&mdash;&mdash;!' he cried. 'What right have you to touch them or to
+look at them? Because you drew up the will, does that make you an
+authority here? I don't believe it, and I won't see you put on the airs
+of it. I will go for the constable myself. I am not afraid of the law. I
+will see who is master in this house where I have lived in wretched
+slavery for years, and of which I shall be soon the owner.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Very well,' said I, 'let us go find the constable.'</p>
+
+<p>"The calmness with which I uttered this seemed at once to abash and
+infuriate him.</p>
+
+<p>"He alternately cringed and ruffled himself, shuffling from one foot to
+the other till I could scarcely conceal the disgust with which he
+inspired me. At last he blurted forth with forced bravado:</p>
+
+<p>"'Have I any rights, or haven't I any rights! You think because I don't
+know the law, that you can make a fool of me, but you can't. I may have
+lived like a dog, and I may not have a good coat to my back, but I am
+the man to whom this property has been given, as no one knows better
+than yourself; and if I chose to lift my foot and kick you out of that
+door for calling me a thief, who would blame me?&mdash;answer me that.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+"'No one,' said I, with a serenity equal to his fury, 'if this property
+is indeed to be yours, and if I know it as you say.'</p>
+
+<p>"Struck by the suggestion implied in these words, as by a blow in the
+face for which he was wholly unprepared, he recoiled for a moment,
+looking at me with mingled doubt and amazement.</p>
+
+<p>"'And do you mean to deny to my face, within an hour of the fact, and
+with the very witnesses to it still in the house, what you yourself
+wrote in this paper I now flaunt in your face? If so, <i>you</i> are the
+fool, and I the cunning one, as you will yet see, Mr. Lawyer.'</p>
+
+<p>"I met his look with great calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"'The hour you speak of contained many minutes, Mr. Huckins; and it
+takes only a few for a woman to change her mind, and to record that
+change.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Her mind?' The stare of terror and dismay in his eyes was contradicted
+by the laugh on his lips. 'What mind had she after I left her? She
+couldn't even speak. You cannot frighten me.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Mr. Huckins,' I now said, beckoning to the two witnesses whom our loud
+talking had guided to the spot where we were, 'I have thought best to
+tell you what some men might have thought it more expedient perhaps to
+conceal. Mrs. Wakeham, who evidently felt herself unduly influenced by
+you in the making of that will you hold in your hand, immediately upon
+your withdrawal testified her desire to make another, and as I had no
+interest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> in the case save the desire to fulfil her real wishes, I at
+once complied with her request, and formally drew up a second will more
+in consonance with her evident desires.'</p>
+
+<p>"'It is a lie, a lie; you are deceiving me!' shrieked the unhappy man,
+taken wholly by surprise. 'She couldn't utter a word; her tongue was
+paralyzed; how could you know her wishes?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Mrs. Wakeham had some of the cunning of her brother,' I observed. 'She
+knew when to play dumb and when to speak. She talked very well when
+released from the influence of your presence.'</p>
+
+<p>"Overwhelmed, he cast one glance at the two witnesses, who by this time
+had stepped to my side, and reading confirmation in the severity of
+their looks, he fell slowly back against the table where he stood
+leaning heavily, with his head fallen on his breast.</p>
+
+<p>"'Who has she given the house to?' he asked at last faintly, almost
+humbly.</p>
+
+<p>"'That I have no right to tell you,' I answered. 'When the will is
+offered for probate you will know; that is all the comfort I can give
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>"'She has left nothing to me, that much I see,' he bitterly exclaimed;
+and his head, lifted with momentary passion, fell again. 'Ten years gone
+to the dogs,' he murmured; 'ten years, and not a cent in reward! It is
+enough to make a man mad.' Suddenly he started forward in irrepressible
+passion. 'You talk about influence,'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> he cried, 'my influence; what
+influence did <i>you</i> have upon her? Some, or she would never have dared
+to contradict her dying words in that way. But I'll have it out with you
+in the courts. I'll never submit to being robbed in this way.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You do not know that you are robbed,' said I, 'wait till you hear the
+will.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The will? This is her will!' he shrieked, waving before him the paper
+that he held; 'I will not believe in any other; I will not acknowledge
+any other.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You may have to,' now spoke up Mr. Dickey in strong and hearty tones;
+'and if I might advise you as a neighbor, I would say that the stiller
+you keep now the better it probably will be for you in the future. You
+have not earned a good enough reputation among us for disinterestedness
+to bluster in this way about your rights.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I don't want any talk from you,' was Huckins' quick reply, but these
+words from one who had the ears of the community in which he lived had
+nevertheless produced their effect; for his manner changed and it was
+with quite a softened air that he finally put up the paper in his pocket
+and said: 'I beg pardon if I have talked too loud and passionately. But
+the property was given to me and it shall not be taken away if any fight
+on my part can keep it. So let me see you all go, for I presume you do
+not intend to take up your abode in this house just yet.'</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' I retorted with some significance, 'though it might be worth our
+while. It may contain more keepsakes;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> I presume there are one or two
+boards yet that have not been ripped up from the floors.' Then ashamed of
+what was perhaps an unnecessary taunt, I hastened to add: 'My reason for
+telling you of the existence of a second will is that you might no
+longer make the one you hold an excuse for rifling these premises and
+abstracting their contents. Nothing here is yours&mdash;yet; and till you
+inherit, if ever you do inherit, any attempt to hide or carry away one
+article which is not manifestly your own, will be regarded by the law as
+a theft and will be punished as such. But,' I went on, seeking to still
+further mitigate language calculated to arouse any man's rage, whether
+he was a villain or not, 'you have too much sense, and doubtless too
+much honesty to carry out such intentions now you know that you have
+lost whatever rights you considered yourself to possess, so I will say
+no more about it but at once make my proposition, which is that we give
+this box into the charge of Mr. Dickey, who will stand surety for it
+till your sister can be found. If you agree to this&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'But I won't agree,' broke in Huckins, furiously. 'Do you think I am a
+fool? The box is mine, I say, and&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'Or perhaps,' I calmly interrupted, 'you would prefer the constable to
+come and take both it and the house in charge. This would better please
+me. Shall I send for the constable?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No, no,&mdash;&mdash;you! Do you want to make a prison-bird of me at once?'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+"'I do not want to,' said I, 'but the circumstances force me to it. A
+house which has given up one treasure may give up another, and for this
+other I am accountable. Now as I cannot stay here myself to watch over
+the place, it necessarily follows that I must provide some one who can.
+And as an honest man you ought to desire this also. If you felt as I
+would under the circumstances, you would ask for the company of some
+disinterested person till our rival claims as executors had been duly
+settled and the right heir determined upon.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But the constable? I don't want any constable.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And you don't want Mr. Dickey?'</p>
+
+<p>"'He's better than the constable.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Very well; Mr. Dickey, will you stay?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, I'll stay; that's right, isn't it, Susan?'</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Thompson who had been looking somewhat uneasy, brightened up as he
+spoke and answered cheerfully:</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, that's right. But who will see me home?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Can you ask?' I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"She smiled and the matter was settled.</p>
+
+<p>"In the hall I had the chance to whisper to Mr. Dickey:</p>
+
+<p>"'Keep a sharp lookout on the fellow. I do not trust him, and he may be
+up to tricks. I will notify the constable of the situation and if you
+want help throw up a window and whistle. The man may make another
+attempt to rob the premises.'</p>
+
+<p>"'That is so,' was the whispered reply. 'But he will have to play sharp
+to get ahead of me.'"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+<a name="v" id="v"></a><span class="sub3">V.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">DIFFICULTIES.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">During</span> the short walk that ensued we talked much of the dead widow and
+her sinister brother.</p>
+
+<p>"'They belong to an old family,' observed Miss Thompson, 'and I have
+heard my mother tell how she has danced in their house at many a ball in
+the olden times. But ever since my day the place has borne evidences of
+decay, though it is only in the last five years it has looked as if it
+would fall to pieces. Which of them do you think was the real miser, he
+or she? Neither of them have had anything to do with their neighbors for
+ten years at least.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Do not you know?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' said she, 'and yet I have always lived in full view of their
+house. You see there were years in which no one lived there. Mr.
+Wakeham, who married this woman about the time father married mother,
+was a great invalid, and it was not till his death that the widow came
+back here to live. The father, who was a stern old man, I have heard
+mother tell, gave his property to her because she was the only one of
+his children who had not displeased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> him, but when she was a widow this
+brother came back to live with her, or on her, we have never been able
+to determine which. I think from what I have seen to-night it must have
+been on her, but she was very close too, or why did she live like a
+hermit when she could have had the friendship of the best?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Perhaps because her brother overruled her; he has evidently had an eye
+on this property for a long time.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, but they have not even had the comforts. For three years at least
+no one has seen a butcher's cart stop at their door. How they have lived
+none of us know; yet there was no lack of money or their neighbors would
+have felt it their duty to look after them. Mrs. Wakeham has owned very
+valuable stocks, and as for her dividends, we know by what the
+postmaster says that they came regularly.'</p>
+
+<p>"'This is very interesting,' said I. 'I thought that fellow's eyes
+showed a great deal of greed for the little he was likely to inherit. Is
+there no one who is fully acquainted with their affairs, or have they
+lived so long out of the pale of society that they possess no friends?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I do not know of any one who has ever been honored with their
+confidence,' quoth the young lady. 'They have shown so plainly that they
+did not desire attention that gradually we have all ceased to go to
+their doors.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And did not sickness make any difference? Did no one go near them when
+it was learned how ill this poor woman was?'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+"'We did not know she was ill till this morning. We had missed her face
+at the window, but no doctor had been called, and no medicine bought, so
+we never thought her to be in any danger. When we did find it out we
+were afraid to invade premises which had been so long shut against us;
+at least I was; others did go, but they were received so coldly they did
+not remain; it is hard to stand up against the sullen displeasure of a
+man like Mr. Huckins.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And do you mean to say that this man and his sister have lived there
+alone and unvisited for years?'</p>
+
+<p>"'They wished it, Mr. Etheridge. They courted loneliness and rejected
+friendship. Only one person, Mr. H&mdash;&mdash;, the minister, has persisted in
+keeping up his old habit of calling once a year, but I have heard him
+say that he always dreaded the visit, first, because they made him see
+so plainly that they resented the intrusion, and, secondly, because each
+year showed him barer floors and greater evidences of poverty or
+determined avarice. What he will say now, when he hears about the two
+wills and the brother trying to run away with his sister's savings,
+before her body was cold, I do not know. There will be some indignation
+felt in town you may be sure, and considerable excitement. I hope you
+will come back to-morrow to help me answer questions.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I shall come back as soon as I have been to Marston.'</p>
+
+<p>"'So you are going to hunt up the heirs? I pray you may be successful.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+"'Do you know them? Have you ever heard anything about them?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, no. It must be forty years since Harriet Huckins ran away from
+home. To many it will be a revelation that such a person lives.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And we do not even know that she does,' said I.</p>
+
+<p>"'True, true, she may be dead, and then that hateful brother will have
+the whole. I hope he won't. I hope she is alive and will come here and
+make amends for the disgrace which that unsightly building has put upon
+the street.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I hope so too,' said I, feeling my old disgust of Huckins renewed at
+this mention of him.</p>
+
+<p>"We were now at her gate, so bidding her good-by, I turned away through
+the midnight streets, determined to find the constable. As I went
+hurrying along in the direction of his home, Miss Thompson's question
+repeated itself in my own mind. Had Mrs. Wakeham been the sufferer and
+victim which her appearance, yes and her words to me, had betokened? Or
+was her brother sincere in his passion and true in his complaints that
+he had been subject to her whims and had led the life of a dog in order
+to please her. With the remembrance of their two faces before me, I felt
+inclined to believe her words rather than his, and yet her last cry had
+contained something in its tone beside anxiety for the rights of an
+almost unknown heir; there had been anger in it,&mdash;the anger of one whose
+secret has been surprised and who feels himself personally robbed of
+something dearer than life.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+"However, at this time I could not stop to weigh these possibilities or
+decide this question. Whatever was true as regarded the balance of right
+between these two, there was no doubt as to the fact that this man was
+not to be trusted under temptation. I therefore made what haste I could,
+and being fortunate enough to find the constable still up, succeeded in
+interesting him in the matter and obtaining his promise to have the
+house put under proper surveillance. This done, I took the car for
+Fulton Ferry, and was so fortunate as to reach home at or near two
+o'clock in the morning. This was last night, and to-day you see me here.
+You disappoint me by saying that you know no one by the name of Harriet
+Smith."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet," exclaimed Edgar, rousing himself from his attitude of listening,
+"I know all the old inhabitants. Harriet Smith," he continued in a
+musing tone, "Harriet&mdash;What is there in the name that stirs up some
+faint recollection? Did I once know a person by that name after all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing more likely."</p>
+
+<p>"But there the thing stops. I cannot get any farther," mused Edgar. "The
+name is not entirely new to me. I have some vague memory in connection
+with it, but what memory I cannot tell. Let me see if Jerry can help
+us." And going to the door, he called "Jerry! Jerry!"</p>
+
+<p>The response came slowly; heavy bodies do not soon overcome their
+inertia. But after the lapse of a few minutes a shuffling footstep was
+heard. Then the sound<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> of heavy breathing, something between a snore and
+a snort, and the huge form of the good-natured driver came slowly into
+view, till it paused and stood in the door opening, which it very nearly
+filled.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you call, sirs?" asked he, with a rude attempt at a bow.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," responded Edgar, "I wanted to know if you remembered a woman by
+the name of Harriet Smith once living about here."</p>
+
+<p>"Har-ri-et Smith," was the long-drawn-out reply; "Har-ri-et Smith! I
+knows lots of Harriets, and as for Smiths, they be as plenty as
+squirrels in nut time; but Har-ri-et Smith&mdash;I wouldn't like to say I
+didn't, and I wouldn't like to say I did."</p>
+
+<p>"She is an old woman now, if she is still living," suggested Frank. "Or
+she may have moved away."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, yes, of course"; and they perceived another slow Harriet
+begin to form itself upon his lips.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that he knew nothing of the person mentioned, Edgar motioned him
+away, but Frank, with a lawyer's belief in using all means at his
+command, stopped him as he was heavily turning his back and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have good news for a woman by that name. If you can find her, and she
+turns out to be a sister of Cynthia Wakeham, of Flatbush, New York,
+there will be something good for you too. Do you want to try for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do I?" and the grin which appeared on Jerry's face seemed to light up
+the room. "I'm not quick," he hastily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> acknowledged, as if in fear that
+Frank would observe this fault and make use of it against him; "that is,
+I'm not spry on my feet, but that leaves me all the more time for
+gossip, and gossip is what'll do <i>this</i> business, isn't it, Dr.
+Sellick?" Edgar nodding, Jerry laughed, and Frank, seeing he had got an
+interested assistant at last, gave him such instructions as he thought
+he needed, and dismissed him to his work.</p>
+
+<p>When he was gone, the friends looked for an instant at each other, and
+then Frank rose.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going out," said he. "If you have friends to see or business to
+look after, don't think you must come with me. I always take a walk
+before retiring."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," replied Edgar, with unusual cheeriness. "Then if you will
+excuse me I'll not accompany you. Going to walk for pleasure? You'd
+better take the road north; the walk in that direction is the best in
+town."</p>
+
+<p>"All right," returned Frank; "I'll not be gone more than an hour. See
+you again in the morning if not to-night." And with a careless nod he
+disappeared, leaving Edgar sitting alone in the room.</p>
+
+<p>On the walk in front of the house he paused.</p>
+
+<p>"To the north," he repeated, looking up and down the street, with a
+curious shake of the head; "good advice, no doubt, and one that I will
+follow some time, but not to-night. The attractions in an opposite
+direction are too great." And with an odd smile, which was at once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> full
+of manly confidence and dreamy anticipation, he turned his face
+southward and strode away through the warm and perfumed darkness of the
+summer night.</p>
+
+<p>He took the road by which he had come from the depot, and passing
+rapidly by the few shops that clustered about the hotel, entered at once
+upon the street whose picturesque appearance had attracted his attention
+earlier in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>What is he seeking? Exercise&mdash;the exhilaration of motion&mdash;the
+refreshment of change? If so, why does he look behind and before him
+with an almost guilty air as he advances towards a dimly lighted house,
+guarded by the dense branches of a double row of poplars? Is it here the
+attraction lies which has drawn him from the hotel and the companionship
+of his friend? Yes, for he stops as he reaches it and gazes first along
+the dim shadowy vista made by those clustered trunks and upright boughs,
+and then up the side and across the front of the silent house itself,
+while an expression of strange wistfulness softens the eager brightness
+of his face, and his smile becomes one of mingled pride and tenderness,
+for which the peaceful scene, with all its picturesque features, can
+scarcely account.</p>
+
+<p>Can it be that his imagination has been roused and his affections
+stirred by the instantaneous vision of an almost unknown woman? that
+this swelling of the heart and this sudden turning of his whole nature
+towards what is sweetest, holiest, and most endearing in life means
+that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> his hitherto free spirit has met its mate, and that here in the
+lonely darkness, before a strange portal and in the midst of new and
+untried scenes, he has found the fate that comes once to every man,
+making him a changed being for ever after?</p>
+
+<p>The month is June and the air is full of the scent of roses. He can see
+their fairy forms shining from amid the vines clambering over the walls
+and porches before him. They suggest all that is richest and spiciest
+and most exquisite in nature, as does her face as he remembered it. What
+if a thorn has rent a petal here and there, in the luxurious flowers
+before him, are they not roses still? So to him her face is all the
+lovelier for the blemish which might speak to others of imperfection,
+but which to him is only a call for profounder tenderness and more
+ardent devotion. And if in her nature there lies a fault also, is not a
+man's first love potent enough to overlook even that? He begins to think
+so, and allows his glances to roam from window to window of the nearly
+darkened house, as if half expecting her sweet and melancholy head to
+look forth in quest of the stars&mdash;or him.</p>
+
+<p>The living rooms are mainly on the side that overlooks the garden, and
+scarcely understanding by what impulse he is swayed, he passes around
+the wall to a second gate, which he perceives opening at right angles to
+the poplar walk. Here he pauses a moment, looking up at the window which
+for some reason he has determined to be hers, and while he stands there,
+the moonlight shows the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> figure of another man coming from the highway
+and making towards the self-same spot. But before this second person
+reaches Frank he pauses, falters, and finally withdraws. Who is it? The
+shadow is on his face and we cannot see, but one thing is apparent,
+Frank Etheridge is not the only man who worships at this especial shrine
+to-night.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+<a name="vi" id="vi"></a><span class="sub3">VI.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">YOUNG MEN'S FANCIES.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> next morning at about nine o'clock Frank burst impetuously into
+Edgar's presence. They had not met for a good-night the evening before
+and they had taken breakfast separately.</p>
+
+<p>"Edgar, what is this I hear about Hermione Cavanagh? Is it true she
+lives alone in that house with her sister, and that they neither of them
+ever go out, not even for a half-hour's stroll in the streets?"</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, flushed at the other's excitement, turned and busied himself a
+moment with his books and papers before replying.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, you have been among the gossips."</p>
+
+<p>"And what if I have! You would tell me nothing, and I knew there was a
+tragedy in her face; I saw it at the first glance."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it a tragedy, this not going out?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is the result of a tragedy; must be. They say nothing and nobody
+could draw from her beyond the boundary of that brick wall we rode by so
+carelessly. And she so young, so beautiful!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+"Frank, you exaggerate," was all the answer he received.</p>
+
+<p>Frank bit his lip; the phrase he had used had been a trifle strong for
+the occasion. But in another moment he was ready to continue the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I do speak of an experiment that has never been tried; but you
+know what I mean. She has received some shock which has terrified her
+and made her afraid of the streets, and no one can subdue this fear or
+induce her to step through her own gate. Is not that sad and interesting
+enough to move a man who recognizes her beauty?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly very sad," quoth the other, "if it is quite true, which
+I doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Go talk to your neighbors then; they have not been absent like yourself
+for a good long year."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not interested enough," the other began.</p>
+
+<p>"But you ought to be," interpolated Frank. "As a physician you ought to
+recognize the peculiarities of such a prejudice. Why, if I had such a
+case&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But the case is not mine. I am not and never have been Miss Cavanagh's
+physician."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, her friend then."</p>
+
+<p>"Who told you I was her friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't remember; I understood from some one that you used to visit
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"My neighbors, as you call them, have good memories."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+"<i>Did</i> you use to visit her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, Frank, subdue your curiosity. If I did, I do not now. The old
+gentleman is dead, and it was he upon whom I was accustomed to call when
+I went to their house."</p>
+
+<p>"The old gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Cavanagh's father."</p>
+
+<p>"And you called upon him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Edgar, how short you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, how impatient you are."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have reason."</p>
+
+<p>"How's that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to hear about her, and you mock me with the most evasive
+replies."</p>
+
+<p>Edgar turned towards his friend; the flush had departed from his
+features, but his manner certainly was not natural. Yet he did not look
+unkindly at the ardent young lawyer. On the contrary, there was a gleam
+of compassion in his eye, as he remarked, with more emphasis than he had
+before used:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry if I seem to be evading any question you choose to put. But
+the truth is you seem to know more about the young lady than I do
+myself. I did not know that she was the victim of any such caprice."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet it has lasted a year."</p>
+
+<p>"A year?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just the time you have been away."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+"Just&mdash;&mdash;" Edgar paused in the repetition. Evidently his attention had
+been caught at last. But he soon recovered himself. "A strange
+coincidence," he laughed. "Happily it is nothing more."</p>
+
+<p>Frank surveyed his friend very seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall believe you," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"You may," was the candid rejoinder. And the young physician did not
+flinch, though Etheridge continued to look at him steadily and with
+undoubted intention. "And now what luck with Jerry?" he suddenly
+inquired, with a cheerful change of tone.</p>
+
+<p>"None; I shall leave town at ten."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there no Harriet Smith here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not if I can believe him."</p>
+
+<p>"And has been none in the last twenty years?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that he can find out."</p>
+
+<p>"Then your quest here is at an end?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it has taken another turn, that is all."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That I shall come back here to-morrow. I must be sure that what Jerry
+says is true. Besides&mdash;&mdash; But why mince the matter? I&mdash;I have become
+interested in that girl, Edgar, and want to know her&mdash;hear her speak.
+Cannot you help me to make her acquaintance? If you used to go to the
+house&mdash;&mdash; Why do you frown? Do you not like Miss Cavanagh? "</p>
+
+<p>Edgar hastily smoothed his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, I have never thought very much about her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> She was young when I
+visited her father, and then that scar&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," cried Frank. He felt as if a wound in his own breast had
+been touched.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar was astonished. He was not accustomed to display his own feelings,
+and did not know what to make of a man who did. But he did not finish
+his sentence.</p>
+
+<p>"If she does not go out," he observed instead, "she may be equally
+unwilling to receive visitors."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," the other eagerly broke in; "people visit there just the same.
+Only they say she never likes to hear anything about her peculiarity.
+She wishes it accepted without words."</p>
+
+<p>It was now Edgar's turn to ask a question.</p>
+
+<p>"You say she lives there alone? You mean with servants, doubtless?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, she has a servant. But I did not say she lived there alone; I
+said she and her sister."</p>
+
+<p>Edgar was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Her sister does not go out, either, they say."</p>
+
+<p>"No? What does it all mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is what <i>I</i> want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Not go out? Emma!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember <i>Emma</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she is younger than Hermione."</p>
+
+<p>"And what kind of a girl is <i>she</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't ask me, Frank. I have no talent for describing beautiful women."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+"She is beautiful, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"If her sister is, yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean <i>she</i> has no scar." It was softly said, almost reverently.</p>
+
+<p>"No, she has no scar."</p>
+
+<p>Frank shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"The scar appeals to me, Edgar."</p>
+
+<p>Edgar smiled, but it was not naturally. The constraint in his manner had
+increased rather than diminished, and he seemed anxious to start upon
+the round of calls he had purposed to make.</p>
+
+<p>"You must excuse me," said he, "I shall have to be off. You are coming
+back to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"If business does not detain me."</p>
+
+<p>"You will find me in my new office by that time. I have rented the small
+brown house you must have noticed on the main street. Come there, and if
+you do not mind bachelor housekeeping, stay with me while you remain in
+town. I shall have a good cook, you may be sure, and as for a room, the
+north chamber has already been set apart for you."</p>
+
+<p>Frank's face softened and he grasped the doctor's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"That's good of you; it looks as if you expected me to need it."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you not a Harriet Smith to find?"</p>
+
+<p>Frank shrugged his shoulders. "I see that you understand lawyers."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+Frank rode down to the depot with Jerry. As he passed Miss Cavanagh's
+house he was startled to perceive a youthful figure bending over the
+flower-beds on the inner side of the wall. "She is not so pretty by
+daylight," was his first thought. But at that moment she raised her
+head, and with a warm thrill he recognized the fact that it was not
+Hermione, but the sister he was looking at.</p>
+
+<p>It gave him something to think of, for this sister was not without her
+attractions, though they were less brilliant and also less marred than
+those of the sad and stately Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>When he arrived at his office his first inquiry was if anything had been
+heard from Flatbush, and upon being told to the contrary he immediately
+started for that place. He found the house a scene of some tumult.
+Notwithstanding the fact that the poor woman still lay unburied, the
+parlors and lower hall were filled with people, who stared at the walls
+and rapped with wary but eager knuckles on the various lintels and
+casements. Whispers of a treasure having been found beneath the boards
+of the flooring had reached the ear of the public, and the greatest
+curiosity had been raised in the breasts of those who up to this day had
+looked upon the house as a worm-eaten structure fit only for the shelter
+of dogs.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Dickey was in a room above, and to him Frank immediately hastened.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "what news?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+"Ah," cried the jovial witness, coming forward, "glad to see you. Have
+you found the heirs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet," rejoined Frank. "Have you had any trouble? I thought I saw a
+police-officer below."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we had to have some one with authority here. Even Huckins agreed
+to that; he is afraid the house will be run away with, I think. Did you
+see what a crowd has assembled in the parlors? We let them in so that
+Huckins won't seem to be the sole object of suspicion; but he really is,
+you know. He gave me plenty to do that night."</p>
+
+<p>"He did, did he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you had scarcely gone before he began his tactics. First he led me
+very politely to a room where there was a bed; then he brought me a
+bottle of the vilest rum you ever drank; and then he sat down to be
+affable. While he talked I was at ease, but when he finally got up and
+said he would try to get a snatch of sleep I grew suspicious, and
+stopped drinking the rum and set myself to listening. He went directly
+to a room not far from me and shut himself in. He had no light, but in a
+few minutes I heard him strike a match, and then another and another.
+'He is searching under the boards for more treasure,' thought I, and
+creeping into the next room I was fortunate enough to come upon a closet
+so old and with such big cracks in its partition that I was enabled to
+look through them into the place where he was. The sight that met my eye
+was startling. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> was, as I conjectured, peering under the boards,
+which he had ripped up early in the evening; and as he had only the
+light of a match to aid him, I would catch quick glimpses of his eager,
+peering face and then lose the sight of it in sudden darkness till the
+gleam of another match came to show it up again. He crouched upon the
+floor and crept along the whole length of the board, thrusting in his
+arm to right and left, while the sweat oozed on his forehead and fell in
+large drops into the long, narrow hollow beneath him. At last he seemed
+to grow wild with repeated disappointments, and, starting up, stood
+looking about him at the four surrounding walls, as if demanding them to
+give up their secrets. Then the match went out, and I heard him stamp
+his foot with rage before proceeding to put back the boards and shift
+them into place. Then there came silence, during which I crept on tiptoe
+to the place I had left, judging that he would soon leave his room and
+return to see if I had been watching him.</p>
+
+<p>"The box was on the bed, and throwing myself beside it, I grasped it
+with one arm and hid my face with the other, and as I lay there I soon
+became conscious of his presence, and I knew he was looking from me to
+the box, and weighing the question as to whether I was sleeping sound
+enough for him to risk a blow. But I did not stir, though I almost
+expected a sudden crash on my head, and in another moment he crept away,
+awed possibly by my superior strength, for I am a much bigger man than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+he, as you must see. When I thought him gone I dropped my arm and looked
+up. The room was in total darkness. Bounding to my feet I followed him
+through the halls and came upon him in the room of death. He had the
+lamp in his hand, and he was standing over his sister with an awful look
+on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"'Where have you hidden it?' he hissed to the senseless form before him.
+'That box is not all you had. Where are the bonds and the stocks, and
+the money I helped you to save?'</p>
+
+<p>"He was so absorbed he did not see me. He stooped by the bed and ran his
+hand along under the mattresses; then he lifted the pillows and looked
+under the bed. Then he rose and trod gingerly over the floor, as if to
+see if any of the boards were loose, and peered into the empty closet,
+and felt with wary hand up and down the mantel sides. At last his eyes
+fell on the clock, and he was about to lift his hand to it when I said:</p>
+
+<p>"'The clock is all right; you needn't set it; see, it just agrees with
+my watch!'</p>
+
+<p>"What a face he turned to me! I tell you it is no fun to meet such eyes
+in an empty house at one o'clock at night; and if you hadn't told me the
+police would be within call I should have been sick enough of my job, I
+can tell you. As it was, I drew back a foot or two and hugged the box a
+little more tightly, while he, with a coward's bravado, stepped after me
+and whispered below his breath:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+"'You are making yourself too much at home here. If I want to stop the
+clock, now that my sister is dead, what is that to you? You have no
+respect for a house in mourning, and I am free to tell you so.'</p>
+
+<p>"To this tirade I naturally made no answer, and he turned again to the
+clock. But just as I was asking myself whether I should stop him or let
+him go on with his peerings and pokings, the bell rang loudly below. It
+was a welcome interruption to me, but it made him very angry. However,
+he went down and welcomed, as decently as he knew how, a woman who had
+been sent to his assistance by Miss Thompson, evidently thinking that it
+was time he made some effort to regain my good opinion by avoiding all
+further cause for suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>"At all events, he gave me no more trouble that night, nor since, though
+the way he haunts the door of that room and the looks he casts inside at
+the clock are enough to make one's blood run cold. Do you think there
+are any papers hidden there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have no doubt of it," returned Frank. "Do you remember that the old
+woman's last words were, 'The clock! the clock!' As soon as I can appeal
+to the Surrogate I shall have that piece of furniture examined."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be mortally interested in knowing what you find there,"
+commented Mr. Dickey. "If the property comes to much, won't Miss
+Thompson and I get something out of it for our trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt," said Frank.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+"Then we will get married," said he, and looked so beaming, that Frank
+shook him cordially by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>"But where is Huckins?" the lawyer now inquired. "I didn't see him down
+below."</p>
+
+<p>"He is chewing his nails in the kitchen. He is like a dog with a bone;
+you cannot get him to leave the house for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>"I must see him," said Frank, and went down the back stairs to the place
+where he had held his previous interview with this angry and
+disappointed man.</p>
+
+<p>At first sight of the young lawyer Huckins flushed deeply, but he soon
+grew pale and obsequious, as if he had held bitter communing with
+himself through the last thirty-six hours, and had resolved to restrain
+his temper for the future in the presence of the man who understood him.
+But he could not help a covert sneer from creeping into his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you found the heirs?" he asked, bowing with ill-mannered grace,
+and pushing forward the only chair there was in the room.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall find them when I need them," rejoined Frank. "Fortunes, however
+small, do not usually go begging."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you have not found them?" the other declared, a hard glitter of
+triumph shining in his sinister eye.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not brought them with me," acknowledged the lawyer, warily.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, then, you won't," suggested Huckins, while he seemed to grow
+instantly at least two inches in stature.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> "If they are not in Marston
+where are they? Dead! And that leaves me the undisputed heir to all my
+sister's savings."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe them dead," protested Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" Huckins half smiled, half snarled.</p>
+
+<p>"Some token of the fact would have come to you. You are not in a strange
+land or in unknown parts; you are living in the old homestead where this
+lost sister of yours was reared. You would have heard if she had died,
+at least so it strikes an unprejudiced mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let it strike yours to the contrary," snapped out his angry
+companion. "When she went away it was in anger and with the curse of her
+father ringing in her ears. Do you see that porch?" And Huckins pointed
+through the cracked windows to a decayed pair of steps leading from the
+side of the house. "It was there she ran down on her way out. I see her
+now, though forty years have passed, and I, a little fellow of six,
+neither understood nor appreciated what was happening. My father stood
+in the window above, and he cried out: 'Don't come back! You have chosen
+your way, now go in it. Let me never see you nor hear from you again.'
+And we never did, never! And now you tell me we would have heard if she
+had died. You don't know the heart of folks if you say that. Harriet cut
+herself adrift that day, and she knew it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you were acquainted with the fact that she went to Marston."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+The indignant light in the brother's eye settled into a look of cunning.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he acknowledged carelessly, "we heard so at the time, when
+everything was fresh. But we heard nothing more, nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing?" Frank repeated. "Not that she had married and had had
+children?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," was the dogged reply. "My sister up there," and Huckins jerked his
+hand towards the room where poor Mrs. Wakeham lay, "surmised things, but
+she didn't know anything for certain. If she had she might have sent for
+these folks long ago. She had time enough in the last ten years we have
+been living in this hole together."</p>
+
+<p>"But," Etheridge now ventured, determined not to be outmatched in
+cunning, "you say she was penurious, too penurious to live comfortably
+or to let you do so."</p>
+
+<p>Huckins shrugged his shoulders and for a moment looked balked; then he
+cried: "The closest women have their whims. If she had known any such
+folks to have been living as you have named, she would have sent for
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"If you had let her," suggested Frank.</p>
+
+<p>Huckins turned upon him and his eye flashed. But he very soon cringed
+again and attempted a sickly smile, which completed the disgust the
+young lawyer felt for him.</p>
+
+<p>"If I had let her," he repeated; "I, who pined for companionship or
+anything which would have put a good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> meal into my mouth! You do not
+know me, sir; you are prejudiced against me because I want my earnings,
+and a little comfort in my old age."</p>
+
+<p>"If I am prejudiced against you, it is yourself who has made me so,"
+returned the other. "Your conduct has not been of a nature to win my
+regard, since I have had the honor of your acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"And what has yours been, worming, as you have, into my sister's
+confidence&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But here Frank hushed him. "We will drop this," said he. "You know me,
+and I think I know you. I came to give you one last chance to play the
+man by helping me to find your relatives. I see you have no intention of
+doing so, so I will now proceed to find them without you."</p>
+
+<p>"If they exist," he put in.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, if they exist. If they do not&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must have proofs to that effect. I must know that your sister left no
+heirs but yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"That will take time," he grumbled. "I shall be kept weeks out of my
+rights."</p>
+
+<p>"The Surrogate will see that you do not suffer."</p>
+
+<p>He shuddered and looked like a fox driven into his hole.</p>
+
+<p>"It is shameful, shameful!" he cried. "It is nothing but a conspiracy to
+rob me of my own. I suppose I shall not be allowed to live in my own
+house." And his eyes wandered greedily over the rafters above him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+"Are you sure that it is yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, damn you!" But the word had been hasty, and he immediately
+caught Frank's sleeve and cringed in contrition. "I beg your pardon," he
+cried, "perhaps we had better not talk any longer, for I have been too
+tried for patience. They will not even leave me alone in my grief," he
+whined, pointing towards the rooms full, as I have said, of jostling
+neighbors and gossips.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be quiet enough after the funeral," Frank assured him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! oh! the funeral!" he groaned.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it going to be too extravagant?" Frank insinuated artfully.</p>
+
+<p>Huckins gave the lawyer a look, dropped his eyes and mournfully shook
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>"The poor woman would not have liked it," he muttered; "but one must be
+decent towards one's own blood."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+<a name="vii" id="vii"></a><span class="sub3">VII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">THE WAY OPENS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span> succeeded in having Mr. Dickey appointed as Custodian of the
+property, then he went back to Marston.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-evening, Doctor; what a nest of roses you have here for a
+bachelor," was his jovial cry, as he entered the quaint little house, in
+which Sellick had now established himself. "I declare, when you told me
+I should always find a room here, I did not realize what a temptation
+you were offering me. And in sight&mdash;&mdash;" He paused, changing color as he
+drew back from the window to which he had stepped,&mdash;&mdash;"of the hills," he
+somewhat awkwardly added.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, who had watched the movements of his friend from under half
+lowered lids, smiled dryly.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Of the hills</i>," he repeated. Then with a short laugh, added, "I knew
+that you liked that especial view."</p>
+
+<p>Frank's eye, which was still on a certain distant chimney, lighted up
+wonderfully as he turned genially towards his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know you were such a good fellow," he laughed. "I hope you
+have found yourself made welcome here."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+"Oh, yes, welcome enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Any patients yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"All of Dudgeon's, I fear. I have been doing little else but warning one
+man after another: 'Now, no words against any former practitioner. If
+you want help from me, tell me your symptoms, but don't talk about any
+other doctor's mistakes, for I have not time to hear it.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old Dudgeon!" cried Frank. Then, shortly: "I'm a poor one to hide
+my impatience. Have you seen either of <i>them</i> yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"Either&mdash;of&mdash;them?"</p>
+
+<p>"The girls, the two sweet whimsical girls. You know whom I mean, Edgar."</p>
+
+<p>"You only spoke of one when you were here before, Frank."</p>
+
+<p>"And I only think of one. But I saw the other on my way to the depot,
+and that made me speak of the two. Have you seen them?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered the other, with unnecessary dryness; "I think you told me
+they did not go out."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have feet, man, and you can go to them, and I trusted that you
+would, if only to prepare the way for me; for I mean to visit them, as
+you have every reason to believe, and I should have liked an
+introducer."</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," asked the other, quietly, but with a certain marked
+earnestness, "has it gone as deep as that? Are you really serious in
+your intention of making the acquaintance of Miss Cavanagh?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+"Serious? Have you for a minute thought me otherwise?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are not serious in most things."</p>
+
+<p>"In business I am, and in&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Love?" the other smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you can call it love, yet."</p>
+
+<p>"We will not call it anything," said the other. "You want to see her,
+that is all. I wonder at your decision, but can say nothing against it.
+Happily, you have seen her defect."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a defect to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Not if it is in her nature as well?"</p>
+
+<p>"Her nature?"</p>
+
+<p>"A woman who for any reason cuts herself off from her species, as she is
+said to do, cannot be without her faults. Such idiosyncrasies do not
+grow out of the charity we are bid to have for our fellow-creatures."</p>
+
+<p>"But she may have suffered. I can readily believe she has suffered from
+that same want of charity in others. There is nothing like a personal
+defect to make one sensitive. Think of the averted looks she must have
+met from many thoughtless persons; and she almost a beauty!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that <i>almost</i> is tragic."</p>
+
+<p>"It can excuse much."</p>
+
+<p>Edgar shook his head. "Think what you are doing, Frank, that's all. <i>I</i>
+should hesitate in making the acquaintance of one who for <i>any</i> reason
+has shut herself away from the world."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+"Is not her whim shared by her sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"They say so."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there are two whose acquaintance you would hesitate to make?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, if I had any ulterior purpose beyond that of mere
+acquaintanceship."</p>
+
+<p>"Her sister has no scar?"</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, weary, perhaps, of the conversation, did not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should she shut herself up?" mused Frank, too interested in the
+subject to note the other's silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Women are mysteries," quoth Edgar, shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"But this is more than a mystery," cried Frank. "Whim will not account
+for it. There must be something in the history of these two girls which
+the world does not know."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not the fault of the world," retorted Edgar, in his usual vein
+of sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>But Frank was reckless. "The world is right to be interested," he
+avowed. "It would take a very cold heart not to be moved with curiosity
+by such a fact as two girls secluding themselves in their own house,
+without any manifest reason. Are <i>you</i> not moved by it, Edgar? Are you,
+indeed, as indifferent as you seem?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know why they do this, of course, but I shall not busy
+myself to find out. I have much else to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I have not. It is the one thing in life for me;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> so look out for
+some great piece of audacity on my part, for speak to her I will, and
+that, too, before I leave the town."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see how you will manage that, Frank."</p>
+
+<p>"You forget I am a lawyer."</p>
+
+<p>Yet for all the assurance manifested by this speech, it was some time
+before Frank could see his way clearly to what he desired. A dozen plans
+were made and dismissed as futile before he finally determined to seek
+the assistance of a fellow-lawyer whose name he had seen in the window
+of the one brick building in the principal street. "Through him,"
+thought he, "I may light upon some business which will enable me to
+request with propriety an interview with Miss Cavanagh." Yet his heart
+failed him as he went up the steps of Mr. Hamilton's office, and if that
+gentleman, upon presenting himself, had been a young man, Frank would
+certainly have made some excuse for his intrusion, and retired. But he
+was old and white-haired and benignant, and so Frank was lured into
+introducing himself as a young lawyer from New York, engaged in finding
+the whereabouts of one Harriet Smith, a former resident of Marston.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamilton, who could not fail to be impressed by Etheridge's sterling
+appearance, met him with cordiality.</p>
+
+<p>"I have heard of you," said he, "but I fear your errand here is bound to
+be fruitless. No Harriet Smith, so far as I know, ever came to reside in
+this town. And I was born and bred in this street. Have you actual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+knowledge that one by that name ever lived here, and can you give me the
+date?"</p>
+
+<p>The answers Frank made were profuse but hurried; he had not expected to
+gain news of Harriet Smith; he had only used the topic as a means of
+introducing conversation. But when he came to the point in which he was
+more nearly interested, he found his courage fail him. He could not
+speak the name of Miss Cavanagh, even in the most casual fashion, and so
+the interview ended without any further result than the making on his
+part of a pleasant acquaintance. Subdued by his failure, Frank quitted
+the office, and walked slowly down the street. If he had not boasted of
+his intentions to Edgar, he would have left the town without further
+effort; but now his pride was involved, and he made that an excuse to
+his love. Should he proceed boldly to her house, use the knocker, and
+ask to see Miss Cavanagh? Yes, he might do that, but afterwards? With
+what words should he greet her, or win that confidence which the
+situation so peculiarly demanded? He was not an acknowledged friend, or
+the friend of an acknowledged friend, unless Edgar&mdash;&mdash; But no, Edgar was
+not their friend; it would be folly to speak his name to them. What
+then? Must he give up his hopes till time had paved the way to their
+realization? He feared it must be so, yet he recoiled from the delay. In
+this mood he re-entered Edgar's office.</p>
+
+<p>A woman in hat and cloak met him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+"Are you the stranger lawyer that has come to town?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He bowed, wondering if he was about to hear news of Harriet Smith.</p>
+
+<p>"Then this note is for you," she declared, handing him a little
+three-cornered billet.</p>
+
+<p>His heart gave a great leap, and he turned towards the window as he
+opened the note. Who could be writing letters to him of such dainty
+appearance as this? Not she, of course, and yet&mdash;&mdash; He tore open the
+sheet, and read these words:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"If not asking too great a favor, may I request that you will
+call at my house, in your capacity of lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>"As I do not leave my own home, you will pardon this informal
+method of requesting your services. The lawyer here cannot do my
+work.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">"Yours respectfully,</p>
+<p class="right2">"<span class="smcap">Hermione Cavanagh</span>."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>He was too much struck with amazement and delight to answer the
+messenger at once. When he did so, his voice was very business-like.</p>
+
+<p>"Will Miss Cavanagh be at liberty this morning?" he asked. "I shall be
+obliged to return to the city after dinner."</p>
+
+<p>"She told me to say that any time would be convenient to her," was the
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Then say to her that I will be at her door in half an hour."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+The woman nodded, and turned.</p>
+
+<p>"She lives on the road to the depot, where the two rows of poplars are,"
+she suddenly declared, as she paused at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he began, and blushed, for the woman had given him a quick
+glance of surprise. "I noticed the poplars," he explained.</p>
+
+<p>She smiled as she passed out, and that made him crimson still more.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I wear my heart on my sleeve?" he murmured to himself, in secret
+vexation. "If so, I must wrap it about with a decent cloak of reserve
+before I go into the presence of one who has such power to move it." And
+he was glad Edgar was not at home to mark his excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The half hour wore away, and he stood on the rose-embowered porch. Would
+she come to the door herself, or would it be the sad-eyed sister he
+should see first? It mattered little. It was Hermione who had sent for
+him, and it was with Hermione he should talk. Was it his heart that was
+beating so loudly? He had scarcely answered the question, when the door
+opened, and the woman who had served as a messenger from Miss Cavanagh
+stood before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said she, "come in." And in another moment he was in the enchanted
+house.</p>
+
+<p>A door stood open at his left, and into the room thus disclosed he was
+ceremoniously ushered.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+"Miss Cavanagh will be down in a moment," said the woman, as she slowly
+walked away, with more than one lingering backward look.</p>
+
+<p>He did not note this look, for his eyes were on the quaint old furniture
+and shadowy recesses of the staid best room, in which he stood an uneasy
+guest. For somehow he had imagined he would see the woman of his dreams
+in a place of cheer and sunshine; at a window, perhaps, where the roses
+looked in, or at least in a spot enlivened by some evidences of womanly
+handiwork and taste. But here all was stiff as at a funeral. The high
+black mantel-shelf was without clock or vase, and the only attempt at
+ornament to be seen within the four grim walls was an uncouth wreath,
+made of shells, on a background of dismal black, which hung between the
+windows. It was enough to rob any moment of its romance. And yet, if she
+should look fair here, what might he not expect of her beauty in more
+harmonious surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>As he was adjusting his ideas to this thought, there came the sound of a
+step on the stair, and the next moment Hermione Cavanagh entered his
+presence.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+<a name="viii" id="viii"></a><span class="sub3">VIII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">A SEARCH AND ITS RESULTS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Hermione Cavanagh</span>, without the scar, would have been one of the
+handsomest of women. She was of the grand type, with height and a
+nobility of presence to which the extreme loveliness of her perfect
+features lent a harmonizing grace. Of a dazzling complexion, the hair
+which lay above her straight fine brows shone ebon-like in its lustre,
+while her eyes, strangely and softly blue, filled the gazer at first
+with surprise and then with delight as the varying emotions of her quick
+mind deepened them into a more perfect consonance with her hair, or
+softened them into something like the dewy freshness of heaven-born
+flowers. Her mouth was mobile, but the passions it expressed were not of
+the gentlest, whatever might be the language of her eyes, and so it was
+that her face was in a way a contradiction of itself, which made it a
+fascinating study to one who cared to watch it, or possessed sufficient
+understanding to read its subtle language. She was oddly dressed in a
+black, straight garment, eminently in keeping with the room; but there
+was taste displayed in the arrangement of her hair, and nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> could
+make her face anything but a revelation of beauty, unless it was the
+scar, and that Frank Etheridge did not see.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you&mdash;" she began and paused, looking at him with such surprise that
+he felt his cheeks flush&mdash;"the lawyer who was in town a few days ago on
+some pressing inquiry?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am," returned Frank, making her the low bow her embarrassment seemed
+to demand.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must excuse me," said she; "I thought you were an elderly man,
+like our own Mr. Hamilton. I should not have sent for you if&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"If you had known I had no more experience," he suggested, with a smile,
+seeing her pause in some embarrassment.</p>
+
+<p>She bowed; yet he knew that was not the way she would have ended the
+sentence if she had spoken her thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am to understand," said he, with a gentleness born of his great
+wish to be of service to her, "that you would prefer that I should send
+you an older adviser. I can do it, Miss Cavanagh."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she said, and stood hesitating, the slight flush on her
+cheek showing that she was engaged in some secret struggle. "I will tell
+you my difficulty," she pursued at last, raising her eyes with a frank
+look to his face. "Will you be seated?"</p>
+
+<p>Charmed with the graciousness of her manner when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> once relieved from
+embarrassment, he waited for her to sit and then took a chair himself.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a wearisome affair," she declared, "but one which a New York
+lawyer can solve without much trouble." And with the clearness of a
+highly cultivated mind, she gave him the facts of a case in which she
+and her sister had become involved through the negligence of her man of
+business.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you help me?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Very easily," he replied. "You have but to go to New York and swear to
+these facts before a magistrate, and the matter will be settled without
+difficulty."</p>
+
+<p>"But I cannot go to New York."</p>
+
+<p>"No? Not on a matter of this importance?"</p>
+
+<p>"On no matter. I do not travel, Mr. Etheridge."</p>
+
+<p>The pride and finality with which this was uttered, gave him his first
+glimpse of the hard streak which there was undoubtedly in her character.
+Though he longed to press the question he judged that he had better not,
+so suggested carelessly:</p>
+
+<p>"Your sister, then?"</p>
+
+<p>But she met this suggestion, as he had expected her to, with equal
+calmness and pride.</p>
+
+<p>"My sister does not travel either."</p>
+
+<p>He looked the astonishment he did not feel and remarked gravely:</p>
+
+<p>"I fear, then, that the matter cannot be so easily adjusted." And he
+began to point out the difficulties in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> the way, to all of which she
+listened with a slightly absent air, as if the affair was in reality of
+no great importance to her.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she waved her hand with a quick gesture.</p>
+
+<p>"You can do as you please," said she. "If you can save us from loss, do
+so; if not, let the matter go; I shall not allow it to worry me
+further." Then she looked up at him with a total change of expression,
+and for the first time the hint of a smile softened the almost severe
+outline of her mouth. "You are searching, I hear, for a woman named
+Harriet Smith; have you found her, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>Delighted at this evidence on her part of a wish to indulge in general
+conversation, he answered with alacrity:</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet. She was not, as it seems, a well-known inhabitant of this town
+as I had been led to believe. I even begin to fear she never has lived
+here at all. The name is a new one to you, I presume."</p>
+
+<p>"Smith. Can the name of Smith ever be said to be new?" she laughed with
+something like an appearance of gayety.</p>
+
+<p>"But Harriet," he explained, "Harriet Smith, once Harriet Huckins."</p>
+
+<p>"I never knew any Harriet Smith," she averred. "Would it have obliged
+you very much if I had?"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled, somewhat baffled by her manner, but charmed by her voice,
+which was very rich and sweet in its tones.</p>
+
+<p>"It certainly would have saved me much labor and suspense," he replied.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+"Then the matter is serious?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is not all law-business serious?"</p>
+
+<p>"You have just proved it so," she remarked.</p>
+
+<p>He could not understand her; she seemed to wish to talk and yet
+hesitated with the words on her lips. After waiting for her to speak
+further and waiting in vain, he changed the subject back to the one
+which had at first occupied them.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be in Marston again," said he; "if you will allow me I will
+then call again and tell you exactly what I can do for your interest."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will be so kind," she replied, and seemed to breathe easier.</p>
+
+<p>"I have one intimate friend in town," pursued Frank, as he rose to take
+his departure, "Dr. Sellick. If you know him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Why did he pause? She had not moved and yet something, he could not say
+what, had made an entire change in her attitude and expression. It was
+as if a chill had passed over her, stiffening her limbs and paling her
+face, yet her eyes did not fall from his face, and she tried to speak as
+usual.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Sellick?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he has returned to Marston after a year of absence. Have not the
+gossips told you that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; that is, I have seen no one&mdash;I used to know Dr. Sellick," she added
+with a vain attempt to be natural. "Is that my sister I hear?" And she
+turned sharply about.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+Up to this moment she had uniformly kept the uninjured side of her face
+towards him, and he had noticed the fact and been profoundly touched by
+her seeming sensitiveness. But he was more touched now by the emotion
+which made her forget herself, for it argued badly for his hopes, and
+assured him that for all Sellick's assumed indifference, there had been
+some link of feeling between these two which he found himself illy
+prepared to accept.</p>
+
+<p>"May I not have the honor," he requested, "of an introduction to your
+sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is not coming; I was mistaken," was her sole reply, and her
+beautiful face turned once more towards him, with a deepening of its
+usual tragic expression which lent to it a severity which would have
+appalled most men. But he loved every change in that enigmatical
+countenance, there was so much character in its grave lines. So with the
+consideration that was a part of his nature he made a great effort to
+subdue his jealous curiosity, and saying, "Then we will reserve that
+pleasure till another time," bowed like a man at his ease, and passed
+quickly out of the door.</p>
+
+<p>Yet his heart was heavy and his thoughts in wildest turmoil; for he
+loved this woman and she had paled and showed the intensest emotion at
+the mention of a man whom he had heard decry her. He might have felt
+worse could he have seen the look of misery which settled upon her face
+as the door closed upon him, or noted how long she sat with fixed eyes
+and paling lips in that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> dreary old parlor where he had left her. As it
+was, he felt sufficiently disturbed and for a long time hesitated
+whether or not he should confront Edgar with an accusation of knowing
+Miss Cavanagh better than he acknowledged. But Sellick's reserve was one
+that imposed silence, and Frank dared not break through it lest he
+should lose the one opportunity he now had of visiting Marston freely.
+So he composed himself with the thought that he had at least gained a
+footing in the house, and if the rest did not follow he had only himself
+to blame. And in this spirit he again left Marston.</p>
+
+<p>He found plenty of work awaiting him in his office. Foremost in interest
+was an invitation to be present at the search which was to be instituted
+that afternoon in the premises of the Widow Wakeham. The will of which
+he had been made Executor, having been admitted to probate, it had been
+considered advisable to have
+<a name="an" id="an"></a><ins title="Original has duplicate an">an</ins> an inventory made of the
+personal effects of the deceased, and this day had been set apart for
+the purpose. To meet this appointment he hurried all the rest, and at
+the hour set, he found himself before the broken gate and gardens of the
+ruinous old house in Flatbush. There was a crowd already gathered there,
+and as he made his appearance he was greeted by a loud murmur which
+amply proved that his errand was known. At the door he was met by the
+two Appraisers appointed by the Surrogate, and within he found one or
+two workmen hobnobbing with a detective from police headquarters.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+The house looked barer and more desolate than ever. It was a sunshiny
+day, and the windows having been opened, the pitiless rays streamed in
+showing all the defects which time and misuse had created in the once
+stately mansion. Not a crack in plastering or woodwork but stood forth
+in bold relief that day, nor were the gaping holes in the flooring of
+hall and parlor able to hide themselves any longer under the strips of
+carpet with which Huckins had endeavored to conceal them.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we begin with the lower floor?" asked one of the workmen, poising
+the axe he had brought with him.</p>
+
+<p>The Appraisers bowed, and the work of demolition began. As the first
+sound of splitting boards rang through the empty house, a quick cry as
+of a creature in pain burst from the staircase without, and they saw,
+crouching there with trembling hands held out in protest, the meagre
+form of Huckins.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't! don't!" he began; but before they could answer, he had
+bounded down the stairs to where they stood and was looking with eager,
+staring eyes into the hole which the workmen had made.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you found anything?" he asked. "It is to be all mine, you know,
+and the more you find the richer I'll be. Let's see&mdash;let's see, she may
+have hidden something here, there is no knowing." And falling on his
+knees he thrust his long arm into the aperture before him, just as Mr.
+Dickey had seen him do in a similar case on the night of the old woman's
+death.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+But as his interference was not desired, he was drawn quietly back, and
+was simply allowed to stand there and watch while the others proceeded
+in their work. This he did with an excitement which showed itself in
+alternate starts and sudden breathless gasps, which, taken with the
+sickly smiles with which he endeavored to hide the frowns caused by his
+natural indignation, made a great impression upon Frank, who had come to
+regard him as a unique specimen in nature, something between a hyena and
+a fox.</p>
+
+<p>As the men held up a little packet which had at last come to light very
+near the fireplace, he gave a shriek and stretched out two clutching
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me have it!" he cried. "I know what that is; it disappeared from my
+sister's desk five years ago, and I could never get her to tell where
+she had put it. Let me have it, and I will open it here before you all.
+Indeed I will, sirs&mdash;though it is all mine, as I have said before."</p>
+
+<p>But Etheridge, quietly taking it, placed it in his pocket, and Huckins
+sank back with a groan.</p>
+
+<p>The next place to be examined was the room upstairs. Here the poor woman
+had spent most of her time till she was seized with her last sickness,
+and here the box had been found by Huckins, and here they expected to
+find the rest of her treasures. But beyond a small casket of almost
+worthless jewelry, nothing new was discovered, and they proceeded at
+Frank's suggestion to inspect the room where she had died, and where the
+clock still stood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> towards which she had lifted her dying hand, while
+saying, "There! there!"</p>
+
+<p>As they approached this place, Huckins was seen to tremble. Catching
+Frank by the arm, he whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Can they be trusted? Are they honest men? She had greenbacks, piles of
+greenbacks; I have caught her counting them. If they find them, will
+they save them all for me?"</p>
+
+<p>"They will save them all for the heir," retorted Frank, severely. "Why
+do you say they are for you, when you know you will only get them in
+default of other heirs being found."</p>
+
+<p>"Why? why? Because I feel that they are mine. Heirs or no heirs, they
+will come into my grasp yet, and you of the law cannot help it. Do I
+look like a man who will die poor? No, no; but I don't want to be
+cheated. I don't want these men to rob me of anything which will
+rightfully be mine some day."</p>
+
+<p>"You need not fret about that," said Frank. "No one will rob <i>you</i>," and
+he drew disdainfully aside.</p>
+
+<p>The Appraisers had now surveyed the room awful with hideous memories to
+the young lawyer. Pointing to the bed, they said:</p>
+
+<p>"Search that," and the search was made.</p>
+
+<p>A bundle of letters came to light and were handed over to Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did she hide those away?" screamed Huckins. "They ain't money."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+Nobody answered him.</p>
+
+<p>The lintels of the windows and doors were now looked into, and the
+fireplace dismantled and searched. But nothing was found in these
+places, nor in the staring cupboards or beneath the loosened boards.
+Finally they came to the clock.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let me," cried Huckins, "let me be the first to stop that clock. It
+has been running ever since I was a little boy. My mother used to wind
+it with her own hands. I cannot bear a stranger's hand to touch it.
+My&mdash;my sister would not have liked it."</p>
+
+<p>But they disregarded even this appeal; and he was forced to stand in the
+background and see the old piece taken down and laid at length upon the
+floor with its face to the boards. There was nothing in its interior but
+the works which belonged there, but the frame at its back seemed
+unusually heavy, and Etheridge consequently had this taken off, when, to
+the astonishment of all and to the frantic delight of Huckins, there
+appeared at the very first view, snugly laid between the true and false
+backing, layers of bills and piles of sealed and unsealed papers.</p>
+
+<p>"A fortune! A fortune!" cried this would-be possessor of his sister's
+hoarded savings. "I knew we should find it at last. I knew it wasn't all
+in that box. She tried to make me think it was, and made a great secret
+of where she had put it, and how it was all to be for me if I only let
+it alone. But the fortune was here in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> this old clock I have stared at a
+thousand times. Here, here, and I never knew it, never suspected it
+till&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He felt the lawyer's eyes fall on him, and became suddenly silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's count it!" he greedily cried, at last.</p>
+
+<p>But the Appraisers, maintaining their composure, motioned the almost
+frenzied man aside, and summoning Frank to assist them, made out a list
+of the papers, which were most of them valuable, and then proceeded to
+count the loose bills. The result was to make Huckins' eyes gleam with
+joy and satisfaction. As the last number left their lips, he threw up
+his arms in unrestrained glee, and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"I will make you all rich some day. Yes, sirs; I have not the greed of
+my poor dead sister; I intend to spend what is mine, and have a good
+time while I live. I don't intend any one to dance over my grave when I
+am dead."</p>
+
+<p>His attitude was one so suggestive of this very same expression of
+delight, that more than one who saw him and heard these words shuddered
+as they turned from him; but he did not care for cold shoulders now, or
+for any expression of disdain or disapproval. He had seen the fortune of
+his sister with his own eyes, and for that moment it was enough.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+<a name="ix" id="ix"></a><span class="sub3">IX.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">THE TWO SISTERS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Frank returned again to Marston he did not hesitate to tell Edgar
+that "he had business relations with Miss Cavanagh." This astonished the
+doctor, who was of a more conservative nature, but he did not mingle his
+astonishment with any appearance of chagrin, so Frank took heart, and
+began to dream that he had been mistaken in the tokens which Miss
+Cavanagh had given of being moved by the news of Dr. Sellick's return.</p>
+
+<p>He went to see her as soon as he had supped with his friend, and this
+time he was introduced into a less formal apartment. Both sisters were
+present, and in the moment which followed the younger's introduction, he
+had leisure to note the similarity and dissimilarity between them, which
+made them such a delightful study to an interested observer.</p>
+
+<p>Emma was the name of the younger, and as she had the more ordinary and
+less poetic name, so at first view she had the more ordinary and less
+poetic nature. Yet as the eye lingered on her touching face, with its
+unmistakable lines of sadness, the slow assurance gained upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> the mind
+that beneath her quiet smile and gentle self-contained air lay the same
+force of will which spoke at once in the firm lip and steady gaze of the
+older woman. But her will was beneficent, and her character noble, while
+Hermione bore the evidences of being under a cloud, whose shadow was
+darkened by something less easily understood than sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>Yet Hermione, and not Emma, moved his heart, and if he acknowledged to
+himself that a two-edged sword lay beneath the forced composure of her
+manner, it was with the same feelings with which he acknowledged the
+scar which offended all eyes but his own. They were both dressed in
+white, and Emma wore a cluster of snowy pinks in her belt, but Hermione
+was without ornament. The beauty of the latter was but faintly shadowed
+in her younger sister's face, yet had Emma been alone she would have
+stood in his mind as a sweet picture of melancholy young womanhood.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione was evidently glad to see him. Fresh and dainty as this, their
+living room, looked, with its delicate white curtains blowing in the
+twilight breeze, there were hours, no doubt, when it seemed no more than
+a prison-house to these two passionate young hearts. To-night cheer and
+an emanation from the large outside world had come into it with their
+young visitor, and both girls seemed sensible of it, and brightened
+visibly. The talk was, of course, upon business, and while he noticed
+that Hermione led the conversation, he also noticed that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> when Emma did
+speak it was with the same clear grasp of the subject which he had
+admired in the other. "Two keen minds," thought he, and became more
+deeply interested than ever in the mystery of their retirement, and
+evident renouncement of the world.</p>
+
+<p>He had to tell them he could do nothing for them unless one or both of
+them would consent to go to New York.</p>
+
+<p>"The magistrate whom I saw," said he, "asked if you were well, and when
+I was forced to say yes, answered that for no other reason than illness
+could he excuse you from appearing before him. So if you will not comply
+with his rules, I fear your cause must go, and with it whatever it
+involves."</p>
+
+<p>Emma, whose face showed the greater anxiety of the two, started as he
+said this, and glanced eagerly at her sister. But Hermione did not
+answer that glance. She was, perhaps, too much engaged in maintaining
+her own self-control, for the lines deepened in her face, and she all at
+once assumed that air of wild yet subdued suffering which had made him
+feel at the time of his first stolen glimpse of her face that it was the
+most tragic countenance he had ever beheld.</p>
+
+<p>"We cannot go," came forth sharply from her lips, after a short but
+painful pause. "The case must be dropped." And she rose, as if she could
+not bear the weight of her thoughts, and moved slowly to the window,
+where she leaned for a moment, her face turned blankly on the street
+without.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+Emma sighed, and her eyes fell with a strange pathos upon Frank's almost
+equally troubled face.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no use," her gentle looks seemed to say. "Do not urge her; it
+will be only one grief the more."</p>
+
+<p>But Frank was not one to heed such an appeal in sight of the noble
+drooping figure and set white face of the woman upon whose happiness he
+had fixed his own, though neither of these two knew it as yet. So, with
+a deprecating look at Emma, he crossed to Hermione's side, and with a
+slow, respectful voice exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Do not make me feel as if I had been the cause of loss to you. An older
+man might have done better. Let me send an older man to you, then, or
+pray that you reconsider a decision which will always fill me with
+regret."</p>
+
+<p>But Hermione, turning slowly, fixed him with her eyes, whose meaning he
+was farther than ever from understanding, and saying gently, "The matter
+is at end, Mr. Etheridge," came back to the seat she had vacated, and
+motioned to him to return to the one he had just left. "Let as talk of
+other things," said she, and forced her lips to smile.</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed, and at once opened a general conversation. Both sisters
+joined in it, and such was his influence and the impulse of their own
+youth that gradually the depth of shadow departed from their faces and a
+certain grave sort of pleasure appeared there, giving him many a thrill
+of joy, and making the otherwise dismal hour one to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> happily
+remembered by him through many a weary day and night.</p>
+
+<p>When he came to leave he asked Emma, who strangely enough had now become
+the most talkative of the two, whether there was not something he could
+do for her in New York or elsewhere before he came again.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head, but in another moment, Hermione having stepped
+aside, she whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"Make my sister smile again as she did a minute ago, and you will give
+me all the happiness I seek."</p>
+
+<p>The words made him joyous, and the look he bestowed upon her in return
+had a promise in it which made the young girl's dreams lighter that
+night, for all the new cause of anxiety which had come into her secluded
+life.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+<a name="x" id="x"></a><span class="sub3">X.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">DORIS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank Etheridge</span> walked musingly towards town. When half-way there he
+heard his name pronounced behind him in tremulous accents, and turning,
+saw hastening in his wake the woman who had brought him the message
+which first took him to Miss Cavanagh's house. She was panting with the
+haste she had made, and evidently wished to speak to him. He of course
+stopped, being only too anxious to know what the good woman had to say.
+She flushed as she came near to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir," she cried with an odd mixture of eagerness and restraint, "I
+have been wanting to talk to you, and if you would be so good as to let
+me say what is on my mind, it would be a great satisfaction to me,
+please, and make me feel a deal easier."</p>
+
+<p>"I should be very glad to hear whatever you may have to tell me," was
+his natural response. "Are you in trouble? Can I help you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it is not that," she answered, looking about to see if any curious
+persons were peering at them through the neighboring window-blinds,
+"though I have my troubles,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> of course, as who hasn't in this hard,
+rough world; it is not of myself I want to speak, but of the young
+ladies. You take an interest in them, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>It was naturally put, yet it made his cheek glow.</p>
+
+<p>"I am their lawyer," he murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," she went on as if she had not seen the evidences of
+emotion on his part, or if she had seen them had failed to interpret
+them. "Mr. Hamilton is a very good man but he is not of much use, sir;
+but you look different, as if you could influence them, and make them do
+as other people do, and enjoy the world, and go out to church, and see
+the neighbors, and be natural in short."</p>
+
+<p>"And they do not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never, sir; haven't you heard? They never either of them set foot
+beyond the garden gate. Miss Emma enjoys the flower-beds and spends most
+of her time working at them or walking up and down between the poplars,
+but Miss Hermione keeps to the house and grows white and thin, studying
+and reading, and making herself wise&mdash;for what? No one comes to see
+them&mdash;that is, not often, sir, and when they do, they are stiff and
+formal, as if the air of the house was chilly with something nobody
+understood. It isn't right, and it's going against God's laws, for they
+are both well and able to go about the world as others do. Why, then,
+don't they do it? That is what I want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"And that is what everybody wants to know," returned Frank, smiling;
+"but as long as the young ladies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> do not care to explain themselves I do
+not see how you or any one else can criticise their conduct. They must
+have good reasons for their seclusion or they would never deny
+themselves all the pleasures natural to youth."</p>
+
+<p>"Reasons? What reasons can they have for actions so extraordinary? I
+don't know of any reason on God's earth which would keep me tied to the
+house, if my feet were able to travel and my eyes to see."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you live with them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; or how could they get the necessaries of life? I do their
+marketing, go for the doctor when they are sick, pay their bills, and
+buy their dresses. That's why their frocks are no prettier," she
+explained.</p>
+
+<p>Frank felt his wonder increase.</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly a great mystery," he acknowledged. "I have heard of
+elderly women showing their eccentricity in this way, but young girls!"</p>
+
+<p>"And such beautiful girls! Do you not think them beautiful?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>He started and looked at the woman more closely. There was a tone in her
+voice when she put this question that for the first time made him think
+that she was less simple than her manner would seem to indicate.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your name?" he asked her abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Doris, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is it you want of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, I thought I told you; to talk to the young ladies and show
+them how wicked it is to slight the good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> gifts which the Lord has
+bestowed upon them. They may listen to you, sir; seeing that you are
+from out of town and have the ways of the big city about you."</p>
+
+<p>She was very humble now and had dropped her eyes in some confusion at
+his altered manner, so that she did not see how keenly his glance rested
+upon her nervous nostril, weak mouth, and obstinate chin. But she
+evidently felt his sudden distrust, for her hands clutched each other in
+embarrassment and she no longer spoke with the assurance with which she
+had commenced the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"I like the young ladies," she now explained, "and it is for their own
+good I want them to do differently."</p>
+
+<p>"Have they never been talked to on the subject? Have not their friends
+or relatives tried to make them break their seclusion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, the times the minister has been to that house! And the doctor
+telling them they would lose their health if they kept on in the way
+they were going! But it was all waste breath; they only said they had
+their reasons, and left people to draw what conclusions they would."</p>
+
+<p>Frank Etheridge, who had a gentleman's instincts, and yet who was too
+much of a lawyer not to avail himself of the garrulity of another on a
+question he had so much at heart, stopped, and weighed the matter a
+moment with himself before he put the one or two questions which her
+revelations suggested. Should he dismiss the woman with a rebuke for her
+forwardness, or should he humor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> her love for talk and learn the few
+things further which he was in reality burning to hear. His love and
+interest naturally gained the victory over his pride, and he allowed
+himself to ask:</p>
+
+<p>"How long have they kept themselves shut up? Is it a year, do you
+think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a full year, sir; six months at least before their father died. We
+did not notice it at first, because they never said anything about it,
+but at last it became very evident, and then we calculated and found
+they had not stepped out of the house since the day of the great ball at
+Hartford."</p>
+
+<p>"The great ball!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, a grand party that every one went to. But they did not go,
+though they had talked about it, and Miss Hermione had her dress ready.
+And they never went out again, not even to their father's funeral. Think
+of that, sir, not even to their father's funeral."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very strange," said he, determined at whatever cost to ask Edgar
+about that ball, and if he went to it.</p>
+
+<p>"And that is not all," continued his now thoroughly reassured companion.
+"They were never the same girls again after that time. Before then Miss
+Hermione was the admiration and pride of the whole town, notwithstanding
+that dreadful scar, while Miss Emma was the life of the house and of
+every gathering she went into. But afterwards&mdash;well, you can see for
+yourself what they are now; and it was just so before their father
+died."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+Frank longed to ask some questions about this father, but reason bade
+him desist. He was already humiliating himself enough in thus discussing
+the daughters with the servant who waited upon them; others must tell
+him about the old gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"The house is just like a haunted house," Doris now remarked. Then as
+she saw him cast her a quick look of renewed interest, she glanced
+nervously down the street and asked eagerly: "Would you mind turning off
+into this lane, sir, where there are not so many persons to pry and peer
+at us? It is still early enough for people to see, and as everybody
+knows me and everybody by this time must know you, they may wonder to
+see us talking together, and I do so long to ease my whole conscience
+now I am about it."</p>
+
+<p>For reply, he took the road she had pointed out. When they were
+comfortably out of sight from the main street, he stopped again and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by haunted?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir," she began, "not by ghosts; I don't believe in any such
+nonsense as ghosts; but by memories sir, memories of something which has
+happened within those four walls and which are now locked up in the
+hearts of those two girls, making them live like spectres. I am not a
+fanciful person myself, nor given to imaginings, but that house,
+especially on nights when the wind blows, seems to be full of something
+not in nature; and though I do not hear anything or see anything, I feel
+strange terrors and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> almost expect the walls to speak or the floors to
+give up their secrets, but they never do; and that is why I quake in my
+bed and lie awake so many nights."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you are not fanciful, nor given to imaginings," smiled Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"No, for there is ground for my secret fears. I see it in the girls'
+pale looks, I hear it in the girls' restless tread as they pace hour
+after hour through those lonesome rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"They walk for exercise; they do not use the streets, so they make a
+promenade of their own floors."</p>
+
+<p>"Do people walk for exercise at night?"</p>
+
+<p>"At <i>night</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Late at night; at one, two, sometimes three, in the morning? Oh, sir,
+it is uncanny, I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"They are not well; lack of change affects their nerves and they cannot
+sleep, so they walk."</p>
+
+<p>"Very likely, <i>but they do not walk together</i>. Sometimes it's one, and
+sometimes it's the other. I know their different steps, and I never hear
+them both at the same time."</p>
+
+<p>Frank felt a cold shiver thrill his blood.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been in the house," she resumed, after a minute's pause, "for
+five years; ever since Mrs. Cavanagh died, and I cannot tell you what
+its secret is. But it has one, I am certain, and I often go about the
+halls and into the different rooms and ask low to myself, 'Was it here
+that it happened, or was it there?' There is a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> staircase on the
+second floor which takes a quick turn towards a big empty room where
+nobody ever sleeps, and though I have no reason for shuddering at that
+place, I always do, perhaps because it is in that big room the young
+ladies walk so much. Can you understand my feeling this way, and I no
+more than a servant to them?"</p>
+
+<p>A month ago he would have uttered a loud disclaimer, but he had changed
+much in some regards, so he answered: "Yes, if you really care for
+them."</p>
+
+<p>The look she gave him proved that she did, beyond all doubt.</p>
+
+<p>"If I did not care for them do you think I would stay in such a gloomy
+house? I love them both better than anything else in the whole world,
+and I would not leave them, not for all the money any one could offer
+me."</p>
+
+<p>She was evidently sincere, and Frank felt a vague relief.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad," said he, "that they have so good a friend in their own
+house; as for your fears you will have to bear them, for I doubt if the
+young ladies will ever take any one into their confidence."</p>
+
+<p>"Not&mdash;not their lawyer?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, "not even their lawyer."</p>
+
+<p>She looked disappointed and suddenly very ill at ease.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you might be masterful," she murmured, "and find out. Perhaps
+you will some day, and then everything will be different. Miss Emma is
+the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> amiable," said she, "and would not long remain a prisoner if
+Miss Hermione would consent to leave the house."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Emma is the younger?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, in everything."</p>
+
+<p>"And the sadder!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure about that, but she shows her feelings plainer,
+perhaps because her spirits used to be so high."</p>
+
+<p>Frank now felt they had talked long enough, interesting as was the topic
+on which they were engaged. So turning his face towards the town, he
+remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"I am going back to New York to-night, but I shall probably be in
+Marston again soon. Watch well over the young ladies, but do not think
+of repeating this interview unless something of great importance should
+occur. It would not please them if they knew you were in the habit of
+talking them over to me, and it is your duty to act just as they would
+wish you to."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it, sir, but when it is for their good&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I understand; but let us not repeat it, Doris." And he bade her a kind
+but significant good-by.</p>
+
+<p>It was now quite dusk, and as he walked towards Dr. Sellick's office, he
+remembered with some satisfaction that Edgar was usually at home during
+the early evening. He wanted to talk to him about Hermione's father, and
+his mood was too impatient for a long delay. He found him as he
+expected, seated before his desk, and with his wonted precipitancy
+dashed at once into his subject.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+"Edgar, you told me once that you were acquainted with Miss Cavanagh's
+father; that you were accustomed to visit him. What kind of a man was
+he? A hard one?"</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, taken somewhat by surprise, faltered for a moment, but only for a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"I never have attempted to criticise him," said he; "but let me see; he
+was a straightforward man and a persistent one, never let go when he
+once entered upon a thing. He could be severe, but I should never have
+called him hard. He was like&mdash;well he was like Raynor, that professor of
+ours, who understood everything about beetles and butterflies and such
+small fry, and knew very little about men or their ways and tastes when
+they did not coincide with his own. Mr. Cavanagh's hobby was not in the
+line of natural history, but of chemistry, and that is why I visited him
+so much; we used to experiment together."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it his pastime or his profession? The house does not look as if it
+had been the abode of a rich man."</p>
+
+<p>"He was not rich, but he was well enough off to indulge his whims. I
+think he inherited the few thousands, upon the income of which he
+supported himself and family."</p>
+
+<p>"And he could be severe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very, if he were interrupted in his work; at other times he was simply
+amiable and absent-minded. He only seemed to live when he had a retort
+before him."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+"Of what did he die?"</p>
+
+<p>"Apoplexy, I think; I was not here, so do not know the particulars."</p>
+
+<p>"Was he&mdash;" Frank turned and looked squarely at his friend, as he always
+did when he had a venturesome question to put&mdash;"was he fond of his
+daughters?"</p>
+
+<p>Edgar had probably been expecting some such turn in the conversation as
+this, yet he frowned and answered quite hastily, though with evident
+conscientiousness:</p>
+
+<p>"I could not make out; I do not know as I ever tried to; the matter did
+not interest me."</p>
+
+<p>But Frank was bound to have a definite reply.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you will be able to tell me if you will only give your mind to
+it for a few moments. A father cannot help but show some gleam of
+affection for two motherless girls."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he was proud of them," Edgar hurriedly asserted, "and liked to have
+them ready to hand him his coffee when his experiments were over; but
+fond of them in the way you mean, I think not. I imagine they often
+missed their mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you know <i>her</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, only as a child. She died when I was a youngster."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not help me much," sighed Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"Help you?"</p>
+
+<p>"To solve the mystery of those girls' lives."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" was Edgar's short exclamation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+"I thought I might get at it by learning about the father, but nothing
+seems to give me any clue."</p>
+
+<p>Edgar rose with a restless air.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not do as I do&mdash;let the matter alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," cried Frank, hotly, "my affections are engaged. I love
+Hermione Cavanagh, and I cannot leave a matter alone that concerns her
+so nearly."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," quoth Edgar, and became very silent.</p>
+
+<p>When Frank returned to New York it was with the resolution to win the
+heart of Hermione and then ask her to tell him her secret. He was so
+sure that whatever it was, it was not one which would stand in the way
+of his happiness.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+<a name="xi" id="xi"></a><span class="sub3">XI.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">LOVE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank's</span> next business was to read the packet of letters which had been
+found in old Mrs. Wakeham's bed. The box abstracted by Huckins had been
+examined during his absence and found to contain securities, which,
+together with the ready money and papers taken from the clock, amounted
+to so many thousands that it had become quite a serious matter to find
+the heir. Huckins still clung to the house, but he gave no trouble. He
+was satisfied, he said, to abide by the second will, being convinced
+that if he were patient he would yet inherit through it. His sister
+Harriet was without doubt dead, and he professed great willingness to
+give any aid possible in verifying the fact. But as he could adduce no
+proofs nor suggest any clue to the discovery of this sister's
+whereabouts if living, or of her grave if dead, his offers were
+disregarded, and he was allowed to hermitize in the old house
+undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, false clues came in and false claims were raised by various
+needy adventurers. To follow up these clues and sift these claims took
+much of Frank Etheridge's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> time, and when he was not engaged upon this
+active work he employed himself in reading those letters to which I have
+already alluded.</p>
+
+<p>They were of old date and were from various sources. But they conveyed
+little that was likely to be of assistance to him. Of the twenty he
+finally read, only one was signed Harriet, and while that was very
+interesting to him, as giving some glimpses into the early history of
+this woman, it did not give him any facts upon which either he or the
+police could work. I will transcribe the letter here:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noi">"<span class="smcap">My Dear Cynthia</span>:</p>
+
+<p>"You are the only one of the family to whom I dare write. I have
+displeased father too much to ever hope for his forgiveness,
+while mother will never go against his wishes, even if the grief
+of it should make me die. I am very unhappy, I can tell you
+that, more unhappy than even they could wish, but they must
+never know it, never. I have still enough pride to wish to keep
+my misery to myself, and it would be just the one thing that
+would make my burden unbearable, to have them know I regretted
+the marriage on account of which I have been turned away from
+their hearts and home forever. But I do regret it, Cynthia, from
+the bottom of my heart. He is not kind, and he is not a
+gentleman, and I made a terrible mistake, as you can see. But I
+do not think I was to blame. He seemed so devoted, and used to
+make me such beautiful speeches that I never thought to ask if
+he were a good man; and when father and mother opposed him so
+bitterly that we had to meet by stealth, he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> always so
+considerate, and yet so determined, that he seemed to me like an
+angel till we were married, and then it was too late to do
+anything but accept my fate. I think he expected father to
+forgive us and take us home, and when he found these
+expectations false he became both ugly and sullen, and so my
+life is nothing but a burden to me, and I almost wish I was
+dead. But I am very strong, and so is he, and so we are likely
+to live on, pulling away at the chain that binds us, till both
+are old and gray.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty talk for a young girl's reading, is it not? But it
+relieves me to pour out my heart to some one that loves me, and
+I know that you do. But I shall never talk like this to you
+again or ever write you another letter. You are my father's
+darling, and I want you to remain so, and if you think too much
+of me, or spend your time in writing to me, he will find it out,
+and that will help neither of us. So good-by, little Cynthia,
+and do not be angry that I put a false address at the top of the
+page, or refuse to tell you where I live, or where I am going.
+From this hour Harriet is dead to you, and nothing shall ever
+induce me to break the silence which should remain between us
+but my meeting you in another world, where all the follies of
+this will be forgotten in the love that has survived both life
+and death.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">"Your sorrowing but true sister,</p>
+<p class="right2">"<span class="smcap">Harriet</span>."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The date was forty years back, and the address was New York City&mdash;an
+address which she acknowledged to be false. The letter was without
+envelope.</p>
+
+<p>The only other allusion to this sister found in the letters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> was in a
+short note written by a person called Mary, and it ran thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"Do you know whom I have seen? Your sister Harriet. It was in
+the depot at New Haven. She was getting off the train and I was
+getting on, but I knew her at once for all the change which ten
+years make in the most of us, and catching her by the arm, I
+cried, 'Harriet, Harriet, where are you living?' How she blushed
+and what a start she gave! but as soon as she saw who it was she
+answered readily enough, 'In Marston,' and disappeared in the
+crowd before I could say another word. Wasn't it a happy chance,
+and isn't it a relief to know she is alive and well. As for her
+looks, they were quite lively, and she wore nice clothing like
+one in very good circumstances. So you see her marriage did not
+turn out as badly as some thought." </p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>This was of old date also, and gave no clue to the sender, save such as
+was conveyed by the signature Mary. Mary what? Mr. Huckins was the only
+person who was likely to know.</p>
+
+<p>Frank, who had but little confidence in this man and none in his desire
+to be of use in finding the legal heir, still thought it best to ask him
+if there was any old friend of the family whose first name was Mary. So
+he went to Flatbush one afternoon, and finding the old miser in his
+house, put to him this question and waited for his reply.</p>
+
+<p>It came just as he expected, with a great show of willingness that yet
+was without any positive result.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+"Mary? Mary?" he repeated, "we have known a dozen Marys. Do you mean any
+one belonging to this town?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean some one with whom your sister was intimate thirty years ago.
+Some one who knew your other sister, the one who married Smith; some one
+who would simply sign her first name in writing to Mrs. Wakeham, and who
+in speaking of Mrs. Smith would call her Harriet."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" ejaculated the cautious Huckins, dropping his eyes for fear they
+would convey more than his tongue might deem fit. "I'm afraid I was too
+young in those days to know much about my sister's friends. Can you tell
+me where she lived, or give me any information beyond her first name by
+which I could identify her?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," was the lawyer's quick retort; "if I could I should not need to
+consult you; I could find the woman myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see, I see, and I wish I could help you, but I really don't know
+whom you mean, I don't indeed, sir. May I ask where you got the name,
+and why you want to find the woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for it involves your prospects. This Mary, whoever she may have
+been, was the one to tell Mrs. Wakeham that Harriet Smith lived in
+Marston. Doesn't that jog your memory, Huckins? You know you cannot
+inherit the property till it is proved that Harriet is dead and left no
+heirs."</p>
+
+<p>"I know," he whined, and looked quite disconsolate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> but he gave the
+lawyer no information, and Frank left at last with the feeling that he
+had reached the end of his rope.</p>
+
+<p>As a natural result, his thoughts turned to Marston&mdash;were they ever far
+away from there? "I will go and ease my heart of some of its burden,"
+thought he; "perhaps my head may be clearer then, and my mind freer for
+work." Accordingly he took the train that day, and just as the dew of
+evening began to fall, he rode into Marston and stopped at Miss
+Cavanagh's door.</p>
+
+<p>He found Hermione sitting at an old harp. She did not seem to have been
+playing but musing, and her hands hung somewhat listlessly upon the
+strings. As she rose the instrument gave out a thrilling wail that woke
+an echo in his sensibilities for which he was not prepared. He had
+considered himself in a hopeful frame of mind, and behold, he was
+laboring instead under a morbid fear that his errand would be in vain.
+Emma was not present, but another lady was, whose aspect of gentle old
+age was so sweet and winning that he involuntarily bent his head in
+reverence to her, before Hermione could utter the introduction which was
+trembling on her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"My father's sister," said she, "and our very dear aunt. She is quite
+deaf, so she would not hear you speak if you attempted it, but she reads
+faces wonderfully, and you see she is smiling at you as she does not
+smile at every one. You may consider yourself introduced."</p>
+
+<p>Frank, who had a tender heart for all misfortune, surveyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> the old lady
+wistfully. How placid she looked, how at home with her thoughts! It was
+peacefulness to the spirit to meet her eye. Bowing again, he turned
+towards Hermione and remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"What a very lovely face! She looks as if she had never known anything
+but the pleasures of life."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," returned Hermione, "she has never known much but its
+disappointments. But they have left no trace on her face, or in her
+nature, I think. She is an embodiment of trust, and in the great silence
+there is about her, she hears sounds and sees visions which are denied
+to others. But when did you come to Marston?"</p>
+
+<p>He told her he had just arrived, and, satisfied with the slight look of
+confusion which mantled her face at this acknowledgment, launched into
+talk all tending to one end, his love for her. But he did not reach that
+end immediately; for if the old lady could not hear, she could see, and
+Frank, for all his impetuosity, possessed sufficient restraint upon
+himself not to subject himself or Hermione to the criticism of even this
+most benignant relative. Not till Mrs. Lovell left the room, as she did
+after a while,&mdash;being a very wise old lady as well as mild,&mdash;did he
+allow himself to say:</p>
+
+<p>"There can be but one reason now for my coming to Marston&mdash;to see you,
+Miss Cavanagh; I have no other business here."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought," she began, with some confusion,&mdash;evidently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> she had been
+taken by surprise,&mdash;"that you were looking for some one, a Harriet
+Smith, I think, whom you had reason to believe once lived here."</p>
+
+<p>"I did come to Marston originally on that errand, but I have so far
+failed in finding any trace of her in this place that I begin to think
+we were mistaken in our inferences that she had ever lived here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you had reason for thinking that she did," Hermione went on, with
+the anxiety of one desirous to put off the declaration she probably saw
+coming.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; we had reasons, but they prove to have been unfounded."</p>
+
+<p>"Was&mdash;was your motive for finding her an important one?" she asked, with
+some hesitation, and a look of curiosity in her fine eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite; a fortune of some thousands is involved in her discovery. She is
+heiress to at least a hundred thousand dollars from a sister she has not
+seen since they were girls together."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed!" and Hermione's eyes opened in some surprise, then fell before
+the burning light in his.</p>
+
+<p>"But do not let us talk of a matter that for me is now of secondary
+interest," cried he, letting the full stream of his ardor find its way.
+"You are all I can think of now; you, you, whom I have loved since I
+caught the first glimpse of your face one night through the window
+yonder. Though I have known you but a little while, and though I cannot
+hope to have awakened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> a kindred feeling in you, you have so filled my
+mind and heart during the few short weeks since I learned your name,
+that I find it impossible to keep back the words which the sight of your
+face calls forth. I love you, and I want to guard you from loneliness
+forever. Will you give me that sweet right?"</p>
+
+<p>"But," she cried, starting to her feet in an excitement that made her
+face radiantly beautiful, "you do not seem to think of my misfortune,
+my&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean this scar?" he whispered softly, gliding swiftly to her
+side. "It is no misfortune in my eyes; on the contrary, I think it
+endears you to me all the more. I love it, Hermione, because it is a
+part of you. See how I feel towards it!" and he bent his head with a
+quick movement, and imprinted a kiss upon the mark she had probably
+never touched herself but with shrinking.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" went up from her lips in a low cry, and she covered her face with
+her hands in a rush of feeling that was not entirely connected with that
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you think I would let that stand in my way?" he asked, with a proud
+tenderness with which no sensitive woman could fail to be impressed. "It
+is one reason more for a man to love your beautiful face, your noble
+manners, your soft white hand. I think half the pleasure would be gone
+from the prospect of loving you if I did not hope to make you forget
+what you have perhaps too often remembered."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+She dropped her hands, and he saw her eyes fixed upon him with a strange
+look.</p>
+
+<p>"O how wicked I have been!" she murmured. "And what good men there are
+in the world!"</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not goodness," he began, but she stopped him with a wave of her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>A strange elation seemed to have taken hold of her, and she walked the
+floor with lifted head and sparkling eye.</p>
+
+<p>"It restores my belief in love," she exclaimed, "and in mankind." And
+she seemed content just to brood upon that thought.</p>
+
+<p>But he was not; naturally he wished for some assurance from her; so he
+stepped in her path as she was crossing the room, and, taking her by the
+hands, said, smilingly:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know how you can testify your appreciation in a way to make me
+perfectly happy?"</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head, and tried to draw her hands away.</p>
+
+<p>"By taking a walk, the least walk in the world, beyond that wooden
+gate."</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered and her hands fell from his.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know what you ask," said she; then after a moment, "it was
+that I meant and not the scar, when I spoke of my misfortune. I cannot
+go outside the garden wall, and I was wrong to listen to your words for
+a moment, knowing what a barrier this fact raises up between us."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+"Hermione,&mdash;" he was very serious now, and she gathered up all her
+strength to meet the questions she knew were coming,&mdash;"why cannot you go
+beyond the garden gate? Cannot you tell me? Or do you hesitate because
+you are afraid I shall smile at your reasons for this determined
+seclusion?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid of your smiling, but I cannot give my reasons. That I
+consider them good must answer for us both."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, we will let them answer. You need not take the walk I
+ask, but give me instead another pleasure&mdash;your promise to be my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"Your wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Hermione."</p>
+
+<p>"With such a secret between us?"</p>
+
+<p>"It will not be a secret long."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Etheridge," she cried with emotion, "you do not know the woman you
+thus honor. If it had been Emma&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It is you I love."</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been safe," she went on as if she had not heard him. "She
+is lovely, and amiable, and constant, and in her memory there is no dark
+scar as there is in mine, a scar deeper than this," she said, laying her
+finger on her cheek, "and fully as ineffaceable."</p>
+
+<p>"Some day you will take me into your confidence," he averred, "and then
+that scar will gradually disappear."</p>
+
+<p>"What confidence you have in me?" she cried.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> "What have you seen, what
+can you see in me to make you trust me so in face of my own words?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is the look in your eyes. There is purity there, Hermione,
+and a deep sadness which is too near like sorrow to be the result of an
+evil action."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you call evil?" she cried. Then suddenly, "I once did a great
+wrong&mdash;in a fit of temper&mdash;and I can never undo it, never, yet its
+consequences are lasting. Would you give your heart to a woman who could
+so forget herself, and who is capable of forgetting herself again if her
+passions are roused as they were then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not," he acknowledged, "but my heart is already given and I do
+not know how to take it back."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you must," said she. "No man with a career before him should marry
+a recluse, and I am that, whatever else I may or may not be. I would be
+doing a second ineffaceable wrong if I took advantage of your generous
+impulse and bound you to a fate that in less than two months would be
+intolerably irksome to one of your temperament."</p>
+
+<p>"Now you do not know me," he protested.</p>
+
+<p>But she heeded neither his
+<a name="words" id="words"></a><ins title="Original has works">words</ins> nor his pleading look.</p>
+
+<p>"I know human nature," she avowed, "and if I do not mingle much with the
+world I know the passions that sway it. I can never be the wife of any
+man, Mr. Etheridge, much less of one so generous and so self-forgetting
+as yourself."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+"Do you&mdash;are you certain?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Certain."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I have not succeeded in raising one throb of interest in your
+breast?"</p>
+
+<p>She opened her lips and his heart stood still for her answer, but she
+closed them again and remained standing so long with her hands locked
+together and her face downcast, that his hopes revived again, and he was
+about to put in another plea for her hand when she looked up and said
+firmly:</p>
+
+<p>"I think you ought to know that my heart does not respond to your suit.
+It may make any disappointment which you feel less lasting."</p>
+
+<p>He uttered a low exclamation and stepped back.</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," said he, "I ought not to have annoyed you. You will
+forget my folly, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you forget it!" cried she; but her lips trembled and he saw it.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione! Hermione!" he murmured, and was down at her feet before she
+could prevent it. "Oh, how I love you!" he breathed, and kissed her hand
+wildly, passionately.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+<a name="xii" id="xii"></a><span class="sub3">XII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">HOW MUCH DID IT MEAN?</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank Etheridge</span> left the presence of Hermione Cavanagh, carrying with
+him an indelible impression of her slender, white-robed figure and
+pallid, passion-drawn face. There was such tragedy in the latter, that
+he shuddered at its memory, and stopped before he reached the gate to
+ask himself if the feeling she displayed was for him or another. If for
+another, then was that other Dr. Sellick, and as the name formed itself
+in his thoughts, he felt the dark cloud of jealousy creep over his mind,
+obscuring the past and making dangerous the future.</p>
+
+<p>"How can I know," thought he, "how can I know?" and just as the second
+repetition passed his lips, he heard a soft step near him, and, looking
+up, saw the gentle Emma watering her flowers.</p>
+
+<p>To gain her side was his first impulse. To obtain her confidence the
+second. Taking the heavy watering-pot from her hand, he poured its
+contents on the rose-bush she was tending, and then setting it down,
+said quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"I have just made your sister very unhappy, Miss Cavanagh."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+She started and her soft eyes showed the shadow of an alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were her friend," she said.</p>
+
+<p>He drew her around the corner of the house towards the poplar trees.
+"Had I been only that," he avowed, "I might have spared her pain, but I
+am more than that, Miss Cavanagh, I am her lover."</p>
+
+<p>The hesitating step at his side paused, and though no great change came
+into her face, she seemed to have received a shock.</p>
+
+<p>"I can understand," said she, "that you hurt her."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she so wedded to the past, then?" he cried. "Was there some one, is
+there some one whom she&mdash;she&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He could not finish, but the candid-eyed girl beside him did not profess
+to misunderstand him. A pitiful smile crossed her lips, and she looked
+for a minute whiter than her sister had done, but she answered firmly:</p>
+
+<p>"You could easily overcome any mere memory, but the decision she has
+made never to leave the house, I fear you cannot overcome."</p>
+
+<p>"Does it spring&mdash;forgive me if I go beyond the bounds of discretion, but
+this mystery is driving me mad&mdash;does it spring from that past attachment
+you have almost acknowledged?"</p>
+
+<p>She drooped her head and his heart misgave him. Why should he hurt both
+these women when his whole feeling towards them was one of kindness and
+love?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+"Pardon me," he pleaded. "I withdraw the question; I had no right to put
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said she, and looked away from him towards the distant
+prospect of hill and valley lying before them.</p>
+
+<p>He stood revolving the matter in his disturbed mind.</p>
+
+<p>"I should have been glad to have been the means of happiness to your
+sister and yourself. Such seclusion as you have imposed upon yourselves
+seems unnecessary, but if it must be, and this garden wall is destined
+to be the boundary of your world, it would have been a great pleasure to
+me to have brought into it some freshness from the life which lies
+beyond it. But it is destined not to be."</p>
+
+<p>The sad expression in her face changed into one of wistfulness.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you are not coming any more?" said she.</p>
+
+<p>He caught his breath. There was disappointment in her tones and this
+could mean nothing but regret, and regret meant the loss of something
+which might have been hope. She felt, then, that he might have won her
+sister if he had been more patient.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it will do for me to come here after your sister has told
+me that it was useless for me to aspire to her hand?"</p>
+
+<p>She gave him for the first time a glance that had the element of
+mirthfulness in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Come as my friend," she suggested; then in a more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> serious mood added:
+"It is her only chance of happiness, but I do not know that I would be
+doing right in influencing you to pursue a suit which may not be for
+yours. <i>You</i> know, or will know after reflection (and I advise you to
+reflect well), whether an alliance with women situated as we are would
+be conducive to your welfare. If you decide yes, think that a woman
+taken by surprise, as my sister undoubtedly was, may not in the first
+hurried moment of decision know her own mind, but also remember that no
+woman who has taken such a decision as she has, is cast in the common
+mould, and that you may but add to your regrets by a persistency she may
+never fully reward."</p>
+
+<p>Astonished at her manner and still more astonished at the intimation
+conveyed in her last words, he looked at her as one who would say:</p>
+
+<p>"But you also share her fate and the resolve that made it."</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to understand him.</p>
+
+<p>"Free Hermione," she whispered, "from the shackles she has wound about
+herself and you will free me."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Emma," he began, but she put her finger on her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" she entreated; "let us not talk any more about it. I have
+already said what I never meant should pass my lips; but the affection I
+bear my sister made me forget myself; she does so need to love and be
+loved."</p>
+
+<p>"And you think I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+"Ah, sir, you must be the judge of your own chances. You have heard her
+refusal and must best know just how much it means."</p>
+
+<p>"How much it means!" Long did Frank muse over that phrase, after he had
+left the sweet girl who had uttered it. As he sat with Edgar at supper,
+his abstracted countenance showed that he was still revolving the
+question, though he endeavored to seem at home with his friend and
+interested in the last serious case which had occupied the attention of
+the newly settled doctor. How much it means! Not much, he was beginning
+to say to himself, and insensibly his face began to brighten and his
+manner to grow less restrained, when Edgar, who had been watching him
+furtively, broke out:</p>
+
+<p>"Now you are more like yourself. Business responsibilities are as hard
+to shake off as a critical case in medicine."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," was the muttered reply, as Frank rose from the table, and took
+the cigar his friend offered him. "And business with me just now is
+particularly perplexing. I cannot get any clue to Harriet Smith or her
+heirs, nor can the police or the presumably sharp detective I have put
+upon the search."</p>
+
+<p>"That must please Huckins."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, confound him! such a villain as he is! I sometimes wonder if he
+killed his sister."</p>
+
+<p>"That you can certainly find out."</p>
+
+<p>"No, for she had a mortal complaint, and that satisfies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> the physicians.
+But there are ways of hastening a death, and those I dare avow he would
+not be above using. The greed in his eyes would do anything; it even
+suffices to make him my very good friend, now that he sees that he might
+lose everything by opposing me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you see through his friendship."</p>
+
+<p>"See through a sieve?"</p>
+
+<p>"He plays his part badly, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"He cannot help it, with that face of his; and then he gave himself away
+in the beginning. No attitude he could take now would make me forget the
+sneak I saw in him then."</p>
+
+<p>This topic was interesting, but Edgar knew it was no matter of business
+which had caused the fitful changes he had been observing in Frank's
+tell-tale countenance. Yet he did not broach any other theme, and it was
+Frank who finally remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you think me a fool to fix my heart on a woman with a
+secret."</p>
+
+<p>"Fool is a strong word," answered Edgar, somewhat bitterly, "but that
+you were unfortunate to have been attracted by Hermione Cavanagh, I
+think any man would acknowledge. You would acknowledge it yourself, if
+you stopped to weigh the consequences of indulging a passion for a woman
+so eccentric."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I should, if my interest would allow me to stop. But it won't,
+Edgar; it has got too strong a hold upon me; everything else sinks in
+importance before it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> I love her, and am willing to sacrifice something
+for her sake."</p>
+
+<p>"Something, perhaps; but in this case it would be everything."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think so."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not think so now; but you would soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I should, but it is hard to realize it. Besides, she would drop
+her eccentricities if her affections once became engaged."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if you have assurance of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I need assurance? Doesn't it stand to reason? A woman loved is so
+different from a woman&mdash;&mdash;" scorned, he was going to say, but,
+remembering himself, added softly, "from a woman who has no one to think
+of but herself."</p>
+
+<p>"This woman has a sister," observed Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>Frank faltered. "Yes, and that sister is involved in her fate," thought
+he, but he said, quietly: "Emma Cavanagh does not complain of Hermione;
+on the contrary, she expresses the greatest affection for her."</p>
+
+<p>"They are both mysteries," exclaimed Edgar, and dropped the subject,
+though it was not half talked out.</p>
+
+<p>Frank was quite willing to accept his silence, for he was out of sorts
+with his friend and with himself. He knew his passion was a mad one, and
+yet he felt that it had made giant strides that day, and had really been
+augmented instead of diminished by the refusal he had received from
+Hermione, and the encouragement to persistence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> which he had received
+from her usually shy sister. As the evening wore on and the night
+approached, his thoughts not only grew in intensity, but deepened into
+tenderness. It was undoubtedly a passion that had smitten him, but that
+passion was hallowed by the unselfish feelings of a profound affection.
+He did not want her to engage herself to him if it would not be for her
+happiness. That it would be, every throb of his heart assured him, but
+he might be mistaken, and if so, better her dreams of the past than a
+future he could not make bright. He was so moved at the turmoil which
+his thoughts made in his usually quiet breast, that he could not think
+of sleep, but sat in his room for hours indulging in dreams which his
+practical nature would have greatly scorned a few short weeks before. He
+saw her again in fancy in every attitude in which his eyes had ever
+beheld her, and sanctified thus by distance, her beauty seemed both
+wonderful and touching. And that was not all. Some chord between them
+seemed to have been struck, and he felt himself drawn towards her as if
+(it was a strange fancy) she stood by that garden gate, and was looking
+in his direction with rapt, appealing eyes. So strong became that fancy
+at last, that he actually rose to his feet and went to the window which
+opened towards the south.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione! Hermione!" broke in longing from his lips, and then annoyed
+at what he could not but consider a display of weakness on his part, he
+withdrew himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> from the window, determined to forget for the moment
+that there lived for him such a cause for love and sorrow. But what man
+can forget by a mere effort of will, or what lover shut his eyes to the
+haunting vision which projects itself upon the inner consciousness. In
+fancy he saw her still, and this time she seemed to be pacing up and
+down the poplar walk, wringing her hands and wildly calling his name. It
+was more than he could bear. He must know if this was only an
+hallucination, and in a feverish impulse he rushed from his room with
+the intention of going to her at once.</p>
+
+<p>But he no sooner stood in the hall than he realized he was not alone in
+the house, and that he should have to pass Edgar's door. He naturally
+felt some hesitation at this and was inclined to give up his purpose.
+But the fever urging him on said no; so stealing warily down the hall he
+stepped softly by the threshold of his friend's room, when to his
+surprise he perceived that the door was ajar.</p>
+
+<p>Pushing it gently open he found the room brilliant with moonlight but
+empty. Greatly relieved and considering that the doctor had been sent
+for by some suffering patient, he passed at once out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>He went directly to that of Hermione, walking where the shadows were
+thickest as if he were afraid of being recognized. But no one was in the
+streets, and when he reached the point where the tall poplar-trees made
+a wall against the moonbeams, he slid into the deep obscurity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> he found
+there with a feeling of relief such as the heart experiences when it is
+suddenly released from some great strain.</p>
+
+<p>Was she in the poplar walk? He did not mean to accost her if she were,
+nor to show himself or pass beyond the boundary of the wall, but he must
+know if her restless spirit drove her to pace these moonlit walks, and
+if it were true or not that she was murmuring his name.</p>
+
+<p>The gate which opened in the wall at the side of the house was in a
+direct line with the window he had long ago fixed upon as hers. He
+accordingly took up his station at that spot and as he did so he was
+sure that he saw the flitting of some dark form amid the alternate bands
+of moonlight and shadow that lay across the weird pathway before him.
+Holding his breath he listened. Oh, the stillness of the night! How
+awesome and yet how sweet it was! But is there no break in the universal
+silence? Above his head the ever restless leaves make a low murmuring,
+and far away in the dim distances rises a faint sound that he cannot
+mistake; it is the light footfall of a dainty woman.</p>
+
+<p>He can see her now. She is coming towards him, her shadow gliding before
+her. Seeing it he quails. From the rush of emotion seizing him, he knows
+that he should not be upon this spot, and panting with the effort, he
+turns and flees just as the sudden sound of a lifted window comes from
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>That arrests him. Pausing, he looks up. It is her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> window that is open,
+and in the dark square thus made he sees her face bright with the
+moonlight streaming over it. Instantly he recovers himself. It is Emma's
+step, not Hermione's, he hears upon the walk. Hermione is above and in
+an anxious mood, for she is looking eagerly out and calling her sister
+by name.</p>
+
+<p>"I am coming," answers back the clear, low voice of Emma from below.</p>
+
+<p>"It is late," cries Hermione, "and very cold. Come in, Emma."</p>
+
+<p>"I am coming," repeated the young girl. And in another moment he heard
+her step draw nearer, saw her flitting figure halt for a moment on the
+door-step before him and then disappear just as the window closed above.
+He had not been observed.</p>
+
+<p>Relieved, he drew a long breath and leaned his head against the garden
+wall. Ah, how fair had been the vision of his beloved one's face in the
+moonlight. It filled him with indescribable thoughts; it made his spirit
+reel and his heart burn; it made him ten times her lover. Yet because he
+was her lover he felt that he ought not to linger there any longer; that
+the place was hallowed even from his presence, and that he should return
+at once to the doctor's house. But when he lifted his head he heard
+steps, this time not within the wall but on the roadside behind him, and
+alert at once to the mischievous surmises which might be aroused by the
+discovery of his presence there, he remained perfectly still in the
+hope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> that his form would be so lost in the deep shadows where he had
+withdrawn himself, that he would not be seen.</p>
+
+<p>But the person, whoever it was, had evidently already detected him, for
+the footsteps turned the corner and advanced rapidly to where he stood.
+Should he step forward and meet the intruder, or remain still and await
+the words of surprise he had every reason to expect? He decided to
+remain where he was, and in another moment realized his wisdom in doing
+so, for the footsteps passed on and did not halt till they had reached
+the gate. But they paused there and at once he felt himself seized by a
+sudden jealousy and took a step forward, eager to see what this man
+would do.</p>
+
+<p>He did not do much; he cast a look up at the house, and a heavy sigh
+broke from his lips; then he leaned forward and plucked a rose that grew
+inside the wall and kissed it there in the moonlight, and put it inside
+his breast-pocket; then he turned again towards the highway, and started
+back in surprise to see Frank Etheridge standing before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Edgar!" cried the one.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank!" exclaimed the other.</p>
+
+<p>"You have misled me," accused Frank; "you do love her, or you would not
+be here."</p>
+
+<p>"Love whom?" asked Edgar, bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione."</p>
+
+<p>"Does Hermione tend the flowers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" ejaculated Frank, understanding his friend for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> the first time;
+"it is Emma you are attached to. I see! I see! Forgive me, Edgar;
+passion is so blind to everything but its own object. Of course it is
+Emma; why shouldn't it be!"</p>
+
+<p>Yet for all its assurance his voice had strange tones in it, and Edgar,
+already annoyed at his own self-betrayal, looked at him suspiciously as
+they drew away together towards the main street.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to find this out," said Frank, with a hilarity slightly
+forced, or so thought his friend, who could not know what thoughts and
+hopes this discovery had awakened in the other's breast. "You have kept
+your secret well, but now that I know it you cannot refuse to make me
+your confidant, when there is so much to tell involving my happiness as
+well as your own."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no happiness, Frank."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I; but I mean to have."</p>
+
+<p>"Mean to marry Miss Cavanagh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, if I can induce her to marry me."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not mean to marry Emma."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not? Because she has a secret? because she is involved in a
+mystery?"</p>
+
+<p>"Partly; that would be enough, Frank; but I have another good reason.
+Miss Emma Cavanagh does not care for me."</p>
+
+<p>"You know that? You have asked her?"</p>
+
+<p>"A year ago; this is no sudden passion with me; I have loved her all my
+life."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+"Edgar! And you mean to give her up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give her up?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I were you, nothing would induce me to resign my hopes, not even her
+own coldness. I <i>would</i> win her. Have you tried again since your
+return?"</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, she is a recluse now; I could not marry a recluse; my wife must
+play her part in the world, and be my helpmate abroad as well as at
+home."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; but as I said in my own case, win her love and that will all
+right itself. No woman's resolve will hold out against a true passion."</p>
+
+<p>"But you forget, she has no true passion for me."</p>
+
+<p>Frank did not answer; he was musing over the subject. He had had an
+opportunity for seeing into the hearts of these girls which had been
+denied to Edgar. Had he seen love there? Yes, but in Hermione's breast,
+not Emma's. And yet Emma was deeply sad, and it was Emma whom he had
+just seen walking her restlessness off under the trees at midnight.</p>
+
+<p>"Edgar," he suddenly exclaimed, "you may not understand this girl. Their
+whole existence is a mystery, and so may their hearts be.
+<a name="wont" id="wont"></a><ins title="Original has Wont">Won't</ins>
+you tell me how it was she refused you? It may serve to throw some light
+upon the facts."</p>
+
+<p>"What light? She refused me as all coquettish women refuse the men whom
+they have led to believe in their affection."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you once believed, then, in her affection."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+"Should I have offered myself if I had not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know; I only know I didn't wait for any such belief on the part
+of Hermione."</p>
+
+<p>"You are impulsive, Frank, I am not; I weigh well what I do, fortunately
+for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Yet you did not prosper in this affair."</p>
+
+<p>"No, because I did not take a woman's waywardness into consideration. I
+thought I had a right to count upon her regard, and I found myself
+mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"Explain yourself," entreated Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"Will not to-morrow do? Here we are at home, and it must be one o'clock
+at least."</p>
+
+<p>"I should sleep better if I knew it all now," Frank intimated.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, come to my room; but there is nothing in the story to
+specially interest you. I loved her&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Edgar, you must be explicit. I am half lawyer in listening to this
+tale; I want to understand these girls."</p>
+
+<p>"Girls? It is of Emma only that I have to speak."</p>
+
+<p>"I know, but tell the story with some details; tell me where you first
+met her."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if I must," sighed Edgar, who hated all talk about himself, "let's
+be comfortable." And throwing himself into a chair, he pointed out
+another to Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"This is more like it," acknowledged the latter.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar lit a cigar; perhaps he felt that he could hide all emotion behind
+its fumes. Frank did not take one.</p>
+
+<p>"I have known Emma Cavanagh ever since we were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> children," began Edgar.
+"As a school-boy I thought her the merriest-eyed witch in town.&mdash;&mdash; Is
+she merry now?"</p>
+
+<p>Frank shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I suppose she has grown older, but then she was as full of
+laughter and fun as any blue-eyed Mischief could well be, and I, who
+have a cynical turn of mind, liked the brightness of hers as I shall
+never like her sadness&mdash;if she is sad. But that was in my adolescence,
+and being as shy as I was inclined to be cynical, I never showed her my
+preference, or even joined the mirthful company of which she was the
+head. I preferred to stand back and hear her laughter, or talk to
+Hermione while watching her sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" thought Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"When I went to college she went to school, and when I graduated as a
+doctor she was about graduating also. But she did not come home at that
+time for more than a fleeting visit. Friends wished her company on a
+trip abroad, and she went away from Marston just as I settled here for
+my first year of practice. I was disappointed at this, but I made what
+amends to myself I could by cultivating the acquaintance of her father,
+and making myself necessary to him by my interest in his studies. I
+spent much of my spare time at the house, and though I never asked after
+Emma, I used to get continual news of her from her sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" again ejaculated Frank to himself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+"At last she returned, and&mdash;I do not know how she looks now, but she was
+pretty then, wonderfully pretty, and more animated in her manner than
+any other woman I have ever seen. I saw her first at a picnic, and
+though I lacked courage to betray the full force of my feeling, I
+imagined she understood me, for her smiles became dazzling, and she
+joked with everybody but me. At last I had her for a few minutes to
+myself, and then the pent up passion of months had its way, and I asked
+her to be my wife. Frank, you may find it easy to talk about these
+things, but I do not. I can only say she seemed to listen to me with
+modest delight, and when I asked her for her answer she gave me a look I
+shall never forget, and would have spoken but that her father called her
+just then, and we were obliged to separate. I saw her for just another
+moment that day, but there were others about, and I could only whisper,
+'If you love me, come to the ball next week'; to which she gave me no
+other reply than an arch look and a smile which, as I have said before,
+appeared to promise me all I could desire. Appeared, but did not; for
+when I called at the house the next day I was told that Mr. Cavanagh was
+engaged in an experiment that could not be interrupted, and when I asked
+to see the ladies received word that they were very busy preparing for
+the ball and could see no one. Relieved at this, for the ball was near
+at hand, I went home, and being anxious to do the honorable thing, I
+wrote to Mr. Cavanagh, and, telling him that I loved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> his daughter,
+formally asked for the honor of her hand. This note I sent by a
+messenger.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not receive an immediate reply (why do you want all these
+particulars, Frank?); but I did not worry, for her look was still warm
+in my memory. But when two days passed and no message arrived I became
+uneasy, and had it not been for the well-known indifference of Mr.
+Cavanagh to all affairs of life outside of his laboratory, I should have
+given up in despair. But as it was, I kept my courage up till the night
+of the ball, when it suddenly fell, never to rise again. For will you
+believe it, Frank, she was not there, nor any of her family, though all
+had engaged to go, and had made many preparations for the affair, as I
+knew."</p>
+
+<p>"And did no letter come? Did you never see Miss Cavanagh again, or any
+of her family?"</p>
+
+<p>"I received a note, but it was very short, though it was in Emma's
+handwriting. She had not been well, was her excuse, and so could not be
+present at the ball. As for the offer I had been kind enough to make
+her, it was far above her deserts, and so must be gratefully declined.
+Then came a burst of something like contrition, and the prayer that I
+would not seek to make her alter her mind, as her decision was
+irrevocable. Added to this was one line from her father, to the effect
+that interesting as our studies were, he felt compelled to tell me he
+should have no further time to give to them at present, and so bade me a
+kindly adieu. Was there ever a more complete<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> dismissal? I felt as if I
+had been thrust out of the house."</p>
+
+<p>Frank, who was nothing if not sympathetic, nodded quickly, but did not
+break into those open expressions of indignation which his friend had
+evidently anticipated. The truth was, he was too busy considering the
+affair, and asking himself what part Hermione had taken in it, and
+whether all its incongruities were not in some way due to her. He was so
+anxious to assure himself that this was not so, that he finally asked:</p>
+
+<p>"And was that the end? Did you never see any of them again?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not wish to," was the answer. "I had already thought of trying my
+fortunes in the West, and when this letter came, it determined me. In
+three weeks I had left Marston as I thought forever, but I was not
+successful in the West."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will be here," observed Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"I think so," said Edgar, and became suddenly silent.</p>
+
+<p>Frank looked at him a long time and then said quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you love her still."</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, flushing, opened his lips, but the other would not listen to any
+denial.</p>
+
+<p>"If you had not loved her, you would not have come back to Marston, and
+if you did not love her still, you would not pluck roses from her wall
+at midnight."</p>
+
+<p>"I was returning from a patient," objected Edgar, shortly.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+"I know, but you <i>stopped</i>. You need not blush to own it, for, as I say,
+I think it a good thing that you have not forgotten Miss Cavanagh." And
+not being willing to explain himself further, Frank rose and sauntered
+towards the door. "We have talked well into the night," he remarked;
+"supposing we let up now, and continue our conversation to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"I am willing to let up," acquiesced Edgar, "but why continue to-morrow?
+Nothing can be gained by fruitless conjectures on this subject, while
+much peace of mind may be lost by them."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps you are right," quoth Frank.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+<a name="xiii" id="xiii"></a><span class="sub3">XIII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">FRESH DOUBTS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span> was recalled to business the next day by the following letter from
+Flatbush:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Etheridge</span>:</p>
+
+<p>It has been discovered this afternoon that Mr. Huckins has left
+town. When he went or where he has gone, no one seems to know.
+Indeed, it was supposed that he was still in the house, where he
+has been hiding ever since the investigations were over, but a
+neighbor, having occasion to go in there to-day, found the
+building empty, and all of Mr. Huckins' belongings missing. I
+thought you would like to know of this disappearance.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="right2"><span class="smcap">A. W. Seney</span>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>As this was an affair for the police, Frank immediately returned to New
+York; but it was not many days before he was back again in Marston,
+determined to see Miss Cavanagh once more, and learn if his suit was as
+really hopeless as it appeared. He brought a box of some beautiful
+orchids with him, and these he presented to Miss Emma as being the one
+most devoted to flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione looked a little startled at his presence, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> Mrs. Lovell, the
+dear old lady who was paying them a visit, smiled gently upon him, and
+he argued well from that smile, knowing that it was not without its
+meaning from one whose eyes were so bright with intelligence as her's.</p>
+
+<p>The evening was cool for summer, and a fire had been lighted in the
+grate. By this fire they all sat and Frank, who was strangely happy,
+entertained the three recluses with merry talk which was not without a
+hidden meaning for one of the quiet listeners. When the old aunt rose
+and slipped away, the three drew nearer, and the conversation became
+more personal. At last&mdash;how was it done&mdash;Emma vanished also, and Frank,
+turning to utter some witty speech, found only Hermione's eyes
+confronting him in the fire-glow. At once the words faltered on his
+tongue, and leaning forward he reached out his hand, for she was about
+to rise also.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not rob me of this one moment," he prayed. "I have come back, you
+see, because I could not stay away. Say that it does not anger you; say
+that I may come now and then and see your face, even if I may not hope
+for all that my heart craves."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I look angry?" she asked, with a sad smile.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he whispered; "nor do you look glad."</p>
+
+<p>"Glad," she murmured, "glad"; and the bitterness in her tone revealed to
+him how strong were the passions that animated her. "I have no business
+with gladness, not even if my own fate changed. I have forfeited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> all
+joy, Mr. Etheridge; and that I thought you understood."</p>
+
+<p>"You speak like one who has committed a crime," he smiled; "nothing else
+should make you feel as you do."</p>
+
+<p>She started and her eyes fell. Then they rose suddenly and looked
+squarely into his. "There are other crimes than those which are marked
+by blood," said she. "Perhaps I am not altogether guiltless."</p>
+
+<p>Frank shuddered; he had expected her to repel the charge which he had
+only made in the hopes of showing her into what a morbid condition she
+had fallen.</p>
+
+<p>"My hands are clean," she went on, "but my soul is in shadow. Why did
+you make me speak of it? You are my friend and I want to keep your
+friendship, but you see why it must not grow into love; <i>must not</i> I
+say, for both our sakes. It would be fatal."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not see that," he cried impetuously. "You do not make me see it.
+You hint and assert, but you tell me nothing. You should give me facts,
+<a name="Hermione" id="Hermione"></a><ins title="Original has Hermoine">Hermione</ins>, and then I could judge whether I should go or
+stay."</p>
+
+<p>She flushed, and her face, which had been lifted to his, slowly sank.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know what you ask of me," she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"I know that I have asked you to be my wife."</p>
+
+<p>"And it was generous of you, very generous. Such generosity merits
+confidence, but&mdash;Let us talk of something else," she cried. "I am not
+fit&mdash;not well enough, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> mean, to speak of serious matters to-night.
+Tell me about your affairs. Tell me if you have found Harriet Smith."</p>
+
+<p>"No," he returned, greatly disappointed, for there had been something
+like yielding in her manner a moment before. "There is no Harriet Smith,
+and I do not even know that there is a Hiram Huckins, for he too has
+disappeared and cannot be found."</p>
+
+<p>"Hiram Huckins?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, her brother and the brother of Mrs. Wakeham, whose will has made
+all this trouble. He is the heir who will inherit her property if
+Harriet Smith or her children cannot be found, and as the latter
+contingency is not likely to happen, it is odd that he should have run
+away without letting us know where he can be found."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he a good man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly. Indeed I consider him a rascal; but he has a good claim on the
+property, as I have already said, and that is what angers me. A hundred
+thousand dollars should not fall into the hands of one so mean and
+selfish as he is."</p>
+
+<p>"Poetic justice is not always shown in this world. Perhaps if you found
+the true heirs, you would find them also lacking in much that was
+admirable."</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly; but they would not be apt to be as bad as he is."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he dishonest?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not like to accuse him, but neither would I like to trust him with
+another man's money."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+"That is unfortunate," said she. "And he will really have this money if
+you do not find any nearer heirs?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly; his name follows theirs in the will."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pity," she observed, rising and moving towards the harp. "Do
+you want to hear a song that Emma composed when we were happier than we
+are now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I do," was his eager reply. "Sing, I entreat you, sing; it will
+make me feel as if the gloom was lifting from between us."</p>
+
+<p>But at this word, she came quickly back and sat down in her former place
+by the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know what came over me," said she; "I never sing." And she
+looked with a severe and sombre gaze into the flames before her.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione, have you no right to joy, or even to give joy to others?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me more about the case that is interesting you. Supposing you
+found Harriet Smith or her children?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would show them the will and put them in the way of securing their
+fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>I</i> should like to see that will."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it would interest me."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not look very interested."</p>
+
+<p>"Do I not? Yet I am, I assure you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you shall see it, or rather this newspaper copy of it which I
+happen to have in my pocket-book."</p>
+
+<p>"What, that little slip?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+"It is not very large."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought a will was something ponderous."</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes it is, but this is short and very much to the point; it was
+drawn up in haste."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me take it," said she.</p>
+
+<p>She took it and carried it over to the lamp. Suddenly she turned about
+and her face was very white.</p>
+
+<p>"What odd provision is this," she cried, "about the heir being required
+to live a year in the house where this woman died?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said he, "that is nothing; any one who inherits this money would
+not mind such a condition as that. Mrs. Wakeham wanted the house fitted
+up, you see. It had been her birthplace."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione silently handed him back the slip. She looked so agitated that
+he was instantly struck by it.</p>
+
+<p>"Why are you affected by this?" he cried. "Hermione, Hermione, this is
+something to <i>you</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>She roused herself and looked calmly at him, shaking her head.</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken," she declared. "It is nothing to me."</p>
+
+<p>"To some one you know, then,&mdash;to your sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"How could it be anything to her, if not to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"True; I beg your pardon; but you seem to feel a personal
+disappointment."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not understand me very well," said she, and turned towards the
+door in welcome of her sister, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> just then came in. She was followed
+by Doris with a tray on which were heaped masses of black and white
+cherries in bountiful profusion.</p>
+
+<p>"From our own trees," said Emma, as she handed him a plate.</p>
+
+<p>He made his acknowledgments, and leaned forward to take the cherries
+which Doris offered him.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," whispered that woman, as she pushed into view a little note which
+she held in her hand under the tray, "just read this, and I won't
+disobey you again. It's something you ought to know. For the young
+ladies' sakes do read it, sir."</p>
+
+<p>He was very angry, and cast her a displeased look, but he took the note.
+Hermione was at the other end of the room, and Emma was leaning over her
+aunt, so the action was not seen; but he felt guilty of a discourtesy
+for all that, and ate his cherries with a disturbed mind. Doris, on the
+contrary, looked triumphant, and passed from one to the other with a
+very cheerful smile.</p>
+
+<p>When Frank arrived home he read that note. It was from Doris herself,
+and ran thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"Something has happened to the young ladies. They were to have
+had new dresses this month, and now they say they must make the
+old ones do. There is less too for dinner than there was, and if
+it were not for the fruit on our trees we would not have always
+enough to eat. But that is not the worst; Miss Emma says I shall
+have to leave them, as they cannot pay me any longer for my
+work.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> As if I would leave them, if I starved! Do, do find out
+what this means, for it is too much to believe that they are
+going to be poor with all the rest they have to endure." </p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Find out what it meant! He knew what it meant; they had sacrificed their
+case, and now they must go hungry, wear old clothes, and possibly do
+their own work. It made him heart-sick; it made him desperate; it made
+him wellnigh forget her look when she said: "Our friendship must not
+grow into love, <i>must not</i>, I say, for both our sakes. It would be
+fatal."</p>
+
+<p>He resolved to see Hermione the next morning, and, if possible, persuade
+her to listen to reason, and give up a resolve that endangered both her
+own and her sister's future comfort.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+<a name="xiv" id="xiv"></a><span class="sub3">XIV.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">IN THE NIGHT WATCHES.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Meantime</span> in the old house Hermione sat watching Emma as she combed out
+her long hair before the tiny mirror in their bedroom. Her face,
+relieved now from all effort at self-control, betrayed a deep
+discouragement, which deepened its tragic lines and seemed to fill the
+room with gloom. Yet she said nothing till Emma had finished her task
+and looked around, then she exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Another curse has fallen upon us; we might have been rich, but must
+remain poor. Do you think we can bear many more disappointments, Emma?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think that I can," murmured Emma, with a pitiful smile. "But
+what do you mean by riches? Gaining our case would not have made us
+rich."</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Has&mdash;has Mr. Etheridge offered himself? Have you had a chance of <i>that</i>
+happiness, and refused it?"</p>
+
+<p>Hermione, who had been gazing almost sadly at her sister as she spoke
+the foregoing words, flushed, half angrily, half disdainfully, and
+answered with sufficient bitterness in her voice:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+"Could I accept any man's devotion <i>now</i>! Could I accept even <i>his</i> if
+it were offered to me? Emma, your memory seems very short, or you have
+never realized the position in which I stand."</p>
+
+<p>Emma, who had crimsoned as painfully as her sister at that one
+emphasized word, which suggested so much to both sisters, did not answer
+for a moment, but when she did her words came with startling
+distinctness.</p>
+
+<p>"You do me wrong; I not only have realized, to the core of my heart,
+your position and what it demands, but I have shared it, as you know,
+and never more than when the question came up as to whether we girls
+could marry with such a shadow hanging over us."</p>
+
+<p>"Emma, what do you mean?" asked Hermione, rising and confronting her
+sister, with wide open, astonished eyes. For Emma's appearance was
+startling, and might well thrill an observer who had never before seen
+her gentleness disturbed by a passion as great as she herself might
+feel.</p>
+
+<p>But Emma, at the first sight of this reflection of her own emotions in
+Hermione's face, calmed her manner, and put a check upon her expression.</p>
+
+<p>"If you do not know," said she, "I had rather not be the one to tell
+you. But never say again that I do not realize your position."</p>
+
+<p>"Emma, Emma," pursued Hermione, without a change of tone or any
+diminution in the agitation of her manner to show that she had heard
+these words, "have <i>you</i> had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> a lover and I not know it? Did you give up
+that <i>when</i>&mdash;&mdash;" The elder sister choked; the younger smiled, but with
+an infinite sadness.</p>
+
+<p>"I should not have spoken of it," said she; "I would not have done so,
+but that I hoped to influence you to look on this affair with different
+eyes. I&mdash;I believe you ought to embrace this new hope, Hermione. Do but
+tell him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Tell him</i>! that would be a way to gain him surely."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think it would cause you to lose him; that is, if you could
+assure him that your heart is free to love him as such a man ought to be
+loved."</p>
+
+<p>The question in these words made Hermione blush and turn away; but her
+emotion was nothing to that of the quieter sister, who, after she had
+made this suggestion, stood watching its effect with eyes in which the
+pain and despair of a year seemed at once to flash forth to light.</p>
+
+<p>"I honor him," began Hermione, in a low, broken voice, "but you know it
+was not honor simply that I felt for&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not speak his name," flashed out Emma. "He&mdash;you&mdash;do not care for
+each other, or&mdash;or&mdash;you and I would never be talking as we are doing
+here to-night. I am sure you have forgotten him, Hermione, for all your
+hesitations and efforts to be faithful. I have seen it in your eyes for
+weeks, I have heard it in your voice when you have spoken to this new
+friend. Why then deceive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> yourself; why let a worn-out memory stand in
+the way of a new joy, a real joy, an unsullied and wholly promising
+happiness?"</p>
+
+<p>"Emma! Emma, what has come to you? You never talked to me like this
+before. Is it the memory of this folly only that stands in the way of
+what you so astonishingly advocate? Can a woman situated as I am, give
+herself up to any hope, any joy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for the situation will change when you yield yourself once again
+to the natural pleasures of life. I do not believe in the attitude you
+have taken, Hermione; I have never believed in it, yet I have cheerfully
+shared it because, because&mdash;you know why; do not let us talk of those
+days."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know all my provocation," quoth Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not, but nothing can excuse the sacrifice you are making of
+your life. Consider, Hermione. Why should you? Have you not duties to
+the present, as well as to the past? Should you not think of the long
+years that may lie between this hour and a possible old age, years which
+might be filled with beneficence and love, but which now&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Emma, Emma, what are you saying? Are you so tired of sharing my fate
+that you would try to make me traitor to my word, traitor to my
+love&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush," whispered again Emma, "you do not love <i>him</i>. Answer me, if you
+do. Plunge deep into your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> heart, and say if you feel as you did once; I
+want to hear the words from your lips, but be honest."</p>
+
+<p>"Would it be any credit to me if I did not? Would you think more of me
+if I acknowledged the past was a mistake, and that I wrecked my life for
+a passion which a year's absence could annul."</p>
+
+<p>But the tender Emma was inexorable, and held her sister by the hands
+while she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Answer, answer! or I shall take your very refusal for a reply."</p>
+
+<p>But Hermione only drooped her head, and finally drew away her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"You seem to prefer the cause of this new man," she murmured ironically.
+"Perhaps you think he will make the better brother-in-law."</p>
+
+<p>The flush on Emma's cheek spread till it dyed her whole neck.</p>
+
+<p>"I think," she observed gravely, "that Mr. Etheridge is the more devoted
+to you, Hermione. Dr. Sellick&mdash;" what did not that name cost her?&mdash;"has
+not even looked up at our windows when riding by the house."</p>
+
+<p>Hermione's eye flashed, and she bounded imperiously to her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"And that is why I think that he still remembers. And shall I forget?"
+she murmured more softly, "while he cherishes one thought of grief or
+chagrin over the past?"</p>
+
+<p>Emma, whose head had fallen on her breast, played idly with her long
+hair, and softly drew it across her face.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+"If you knew," she murmured, "that he did not cherish one thought such
+as you imagine, would you then open your heart to this new love and the
+brightness in the world and all the hopes which belong to our time of
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"If, if," repeated Hermione, staring at the half-hidden face of her
+sister as at some stranger whom she had found persistent and
+incomprehensible. "I don't know what you mean by your <i>ifs</i>. Do you
+think it would add to my content and self-satisfaction to hear that I
+had reared this ghastly prison which I inhabit on a foundation of sand,
+and that the walls in toppling would crash about my ears and destroy me?
+You must have a strange idea of a woman's heart, if you thought it would
+make me any readier to face life if I knew I had sacrificed my all to a
+chimera."</p>
+
+<p>Emma sighed. "Not if it gave you a new hope," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," murmured Hermione, and her face softened for the first time. "I
+dare not think of that," she murmured. "I dare not, Emma; <span class="smcap">I dare not</span>."</p>
+
+<p>The younger sister, as if answered, threw back her hair and looked at
+Hermione quite brightly.</p>
+
+<p>"You will come to dare in time," said she, and fled from the room like a
+spirit.</p>
+
+<p>When she was gone, Hermione stood still for many minutes; then she began
+quietly to let down her own hair. As the long locks fell curling and
+dark about her shoulders,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> a dreamier and dreamier spirit came upon her,
+mellowing the light in her half-closed eyes, and bringing such a sweet,
+half-timid, half-longing smile to her lips that she looked the
+embodiment of virginal joy. But the mood did not last long, and ere the
+thick curls were duly parted and arranged for the night, the tears had
+begun to fall, and the sobs to come till she was fain to put out her
+light and hide behind the curtains of her bed the grief and remorse
+which were pressing upon her.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Emma had stolen to her aunt's room, and was kneeling down
+beside her peaceful figure.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt, dear Aunt," she cried, "tell me what my duty is. Help me to
+decide if Hermione should be told the truth which we have so long kept
+from her."</p>
+
+<p>She knew the old lady could not hear, but she was in the habit of
+speaking to her just as if she could, and often through some subtle
+sympathy between them the sense of her words was understood and answered
+in a way to surprise her.</p>
+
+<p>And in this case Mrs. Lovell seemed to understand, for she kissed Emma
+with great fondness, and then, taking the sweet, troubled, passionate
+face between her two palms, looked at her with such love and sympathy
+that the tears filled Emma's eyes, for all her efforts at self-control.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her," came forth at last, in the strange, loud tones of the
+perfectly deaf, "and leave the rest to God. You have kept silence, and
+the wound has not healed;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> now try the truth, and may heaven bless you
+and the two others whom you desire to make happy."</p>
+
+<p>And Emma, rising up, thanked God that he had left them this one blessing
+in their desolation&mdash;this true-hearted and tender-souled adviser.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>That night, as Hermione was tossing in a restless sleep, she suddenly
+became aware of a touch on her shoulder, and, looking up, she saw her
+sister standing before her, with a lighted candle in her hand, and her
+hair streaming about her.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" she cried, bounding up in terror, for Emma's face
+was livid with its fixed resolve, and wore a look such as Hermione had
+never seen there before.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," cried the other, "nothing; only I have something to tell
+you&mdash;something which you should have known a long time ago&mdash;something
+about which you should never have been deceived. It is this, Hermione.
+It was not you Dr. Sellick wished to marry, but myself." And with the
+words the light was blown out, and Hermione found herself alone.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+<a name="xv" id="xv"></a><span class="sub1">BOOK II.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub2">THE SECRET OF THE LABORATORY.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub3">XV.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">THE BEGINNING OF CHANGES.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">As</span> Frank went by the house early the next morning on his way to the
+train, he paused and glanced at one of the upper windows, where he had
+once before seen Hermione's face looking out. The blinds were closed,
+but the slats were slightly turned, and through them he thought, but he
+could not be quite sure, he caught the glimpse of a pair of flashing
+eyes. In the hope that this was so, he laid his hand upon the gate and
+then glanced up again, as if asking permission to open it. The blinds
+moved and in another instant fell back, and he saw the face he loved,
+looking very pale but sweet, bending towards him from the clustering
+honeysuckles.</p>
+
+<p>"May I come in," he asked, "just for a few words more? You know we were
+interrupted last night."</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head, and his heart sank; then she seemed to repent her
+decision and half opened her lips<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> as if to speak, but no words came. He
+kept his hand on the gate, and his face grew eloquent.</p>
+
+<p>"You cannot say no," he now pleaded, smiling at the blush that was
+slowly mantling on her cheek. "I may not be here again for weeks, and if
+you do not let me say good-by I shall always think I have displeased
+you, and that will not add to my happiness or peace."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," came in sudden eagerness from her lips, and he saw her disappear
+from the window and appear, almost before he could realize his own
+relief, in the open door-way before him. "Come in," said she, with the
+first full glad smile he had ever seen on her lips.</p>
+
+<p>But though he bounded up the steps he did not enter the house. Instead
+of that he seized her hand and tried to induce her to come out in the
+open air to him. "No close rooms," said he, "on such a morning as this.
+Come into the poplar-walk, come; let me see you with the wind blowing
+your hair about your cheeks."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" burst from her lips in something almost like fright. "Emma
+goes into the garden, but not I. Do not ask me to break the habit of
+months, do not."</p>
+
+<p>But he was determined, tenderly, firmly determined.</p>
+
+<p>"I must," said he; "I must. Your white cheeks and worn face demand the
+freshness of out-door air. I do not say you must go outside the gate,
+but I do say you must feel again what it is to have the poplars rustle
+above your head and the grass close lovingly over your feet. So come,
+Hermione, come, for I will not take no,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> I will not, even from the lips
+whose business it shall be to command me in everything else."</p>
+
+<p>His eyes entreated her, his hand constrained her; she sought to do
+battle with his will, but her glances fell before the burning ardor of
+his. With a sudden wild heave of her breast, she yielded, and he drew
+her down into the garden and so around to the poplar-walk. As she went
+the roses came out on her cheeks, and she seemed to breathe like a
+creature restored to life.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the blue, blue sky!" she cried, "and oh, the hills! I have not seen
+them for a year. As for the poplars, I should love to kiss their old
+boughs, I am so glad to be beneath them once more."</p>
+
+<p>But as she proceeded farther her spirits seemed to droop again, and she
+cast him furtive looks as much as to say:</p>
+
+<p>"Is it right? ought I to be enjoying all this bliss?"</p>
+
+<p>But the smile on his face was so assured, she speedily took courage
+again, and allowed him to lead her to the end of the poplar-walk, far up
+in those regions where his eye had often strayed but his feet never been
+even in fancy. On a certain bench they sat down, and he turned towards
+her a beaming face.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I feel as if you were mine," he cried. "Nothing shall part us after
+this, not even your own words."</p>
+
+<p>But she put her hands out with a meek, deprecating gesture, very unlike
+the imperious one she had indulged in before.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+"You must not say that," she cried. "My coming out may have been a
+weakness, but it shall not be followed by what you yourself might come
+to regard as a wrong. I am here, and it was for your pleasure I came,
+but that commits me to nothing and you to nothing, unless it be to the
+momentary delight. Do you hear that bird sing?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are lovely with that flickering sunlight on your face," was all the
+reply he made.</p>
+
+<p>And perhaps he could have made no better, for it gave her a sweet sense
+of helplessness in the presence of this great love, which to a woman who
+had been so long bearing herself up in solitary assertion had all the
+effect of rest and relief.</p>
+
+<p>"You make me feel as if my youth was not quite gone," said she; "but,"
+she added, as his hand stole towards hers, "you have not yet made me
+feel that I must listen to all the promptings of love. There is a gulf
+between me and you across which we cannot shake hands. But we can speak,
+friend, to one another, and that is a pleasure to one who has travelled
+so long in a wilderness alone. Shall we not let that content us, or do
+you wish to risk life and all by attempting more?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to risk everything, anything, so as to make you mine."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not know what you are saying. We are talking pure foolishness,"
+was her sudden exclamation, as she leapt to her feet. "Here, in this
+pure air, and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> sight of the fields and hills, the narrow, confining
+bands which have held me to the house seem to lose their power and
+partake of the unsubstantiality of a dream. But I know that with my
+recrossing of the threshold they will resume their power again, and I
+shall wonder I could ever talk of freedom or companionship with one who
+does not know the secrets of the house or the shadow which has been cast
+by them upon my life."</p>
+
+<p>"You know them, and yet you would go back," he cried. "I should say the
+wiser course would be to turn away from a place so fatal to your
+happiness and hopes, and, yielding to my entreaties, go with me to the
+city, where we will be married, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Frank, what a love you have for me! a love which questions nothing, not
+even my past, notwithstanding I say it is that past which separates us
+and makes me the recluse I am."</p>
+
+<p>"You have filled me with trust by the pure look in your eyes," said he.
+"Why should I ask you to harrow up your feelings by telling me what you
+would have told me long ago, if it had not been too painful?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are a great, good man," she cried. "You subdue me who have never
+been subdued before, except by my own passionate temper. I reverence you
+and I&mdash;love&mdash;you. Do not ask me to say anything more." And the queenly,
+imperious form swayed from side to side, and the wild tears gushed
+forth, and she fled from his side down the poplar-walk, till she came
+within sight of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> the house, when she paused, gathering up her strength
+till he reached the place where she stood, when she said:</p>
+
+<p>"You are coming again, some time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am coming again in a week."</p>
+
+<p>"You will find a little packet awaiting you in the place where you stay.
+You will read it before you see me again?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will read it."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by," said she; and her face in its most beautiful aspect shone on
+him for a moment; then she retreated, and was lost to his view in the
+shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>As he passed the house on his way to the gate, he saw Doris casting
+looks of delight down the poplar-walk, where her young mistress was
+still straying, and at the same instant caught a hurried glimpse of Mrs.
+Lovell and Emma, leaning from the window above, in joyful recognition of
+the fact that a settled habit had been broken, and that at his
+inducement Hermione had consented to taste again the out-door air.</p>
+
+<p>He was yet in time for the train, for he had calculated on this visit,
+and so made allowances for it. He was therefore on the point of turning
+towards the station, when he saw the figure of a man coming down the
+street, and stopped, amazed. Was it&mdash;could it be&mdash;yes, it was Hiram
+Huckins. He was dressed in black, and looked decent, almost trim, but
+his air was that of one uncertain of himself, and his face was
+disfigured by an ingratiating leer which Etheridge found almost
+intolerable. He was the first to speak.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+"How do you do, Mr. Etheridge?" said he, ambling up, and bowing with
+hypocritical meekness. "You didn't expect to see me here, did you? But
+business calls me. My poor, dear sister Harriet is said to have been in
+Marston, and I have come to see if it is true. I do not find her, do
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>The sly, half-audacious, half-deprecating look with which he uttered
+these words irritated Frank beyond endurance.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he rejoined. "Your valuable time will be wasted here. You will
+have to look elsewhere for your <i>dear</i> sister."</p>
+
+<p>"It has taken you a long time to find that out," insinuated the other,
+with his most disagreeable leer. "I suppose, now, you thought till this
+very last night that you would find her in the graveyard or in some of
+these old houses. Else why should you waste <i>your</i> valuable time in a
+place of such mean attractions."</p>
+
+<p>They were standing directly in front of the Cavanagh house and Frank was
+angry enough to lift his hand against him at these words, for the old
+man's eyes&mdash;he was not old but he always presented the appearance of
+being so&mdash;had wandered meaningly towards the windows above him, as if he
+knew that behind them, instead of in any graveyard, centred the real
+attractions of the place for Frank.</p>
+
+<p>But though a lawyer may have passions, he, as a rule, has learned to
+keep a curb upon them, especially in the presence of one who is likely
+to oppose him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+So bowing with an effort at politeness, young Etheridge acknowledged
+that he had only lately given up his hope, and was about to withdraw in
+his haste to catch the train, when Huckins seized him by the arm with a
+low chuckle and slyly whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"You've been visiting the two pretty hermitesses, eh? Are they nice
+girls? Do they know anything about my sister? You look as if you had
+heard good news somewhere. Was it in there?"</p>
+
+<p>He was eager; he was insinuating; he seemed to hang upon Frank's reply.
+But the lawyer, struck and troubled by this allusion to the women he so
+cherished, on lips he detested beyond any in the world, stood still for
+a moment, looking the indignation he dared not speak.</p>
+
+<p>Huckins took advantage of this silence to speak again, this time with an
+off-hand assurance only less offensive than his significant remarks.</p>
+
+<p>"I know they keep at home and do not go out in the world to hear the
+gossip. But women who keep themselves shut up often know a lot about
+what is going on around them, Mr. Etheridge, and as you have been there
+I thought&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind what you thought," burst out Frank, unable to bear his
+insinuations any longer. "Enough that I do not go there to hear anything
+about Harriet Smith. There are other law cases in the world besides
+yours, and other clients besides your sister and her heirs. These young
+ladies, for instance, whom you speak of so freely."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+"I am sure," stammered Huckins, with great volubility, and an air of
+joviality which became him as little as the suspicious attitude he had
+hitherto taken, "I never meant to speak with the least disrespect of
+ladies I have never met. Only I was interested you know, naturally
+interested, in anything which might seem to bear upon my own affairs.
+They drag so, don't they, Mr. Etheridge, and I am kept so long out of my
+rights."</p>
+
+<p>"No longer than justice seems to demand, Mr. Huckins; your sister, and
+her heirs, if they exist, have rights also."</p>
+
+<p>"So you say," quoth Huckins, "and I have learned not to quarrel with a
+lawyer. Good-day, Mr. Etheridge, good-day. Hope to hear that some
+decision has been arrived at soon."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-day," growled Frank, and strode rapidly off, determined to return
+to Marston that very night if only to learn what Huckins was up to. But
+before he had gone a dozen steps he came quickly back and seized that
+person by the arm. "Where are you going?" he asked; for Huckins had laid
+his hand on Miss Cavanagh's gate and was about to enter.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to pay a visit," was the smiling reply. "Is there anything
+wrong in that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you did not know these young ladies&mdash;that they were strangers
+to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"So they are, so they are, but I am a man who takes a great interest in
+eccentric persons. I am eccentric myself; so was my sister Cynthia; so I
+may say was Harriet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> though how eccentric we have still to find out. If
+the young ladies do not want to see an old man from New York they can
+say so, but I mean to give them the chance. Have you anything to say
+against it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, except that I think it an unwarrantable intrusion about which you
+had better think twice."</p>
+
+<p>"I have thought," retorted Huckins, with a mild obstinacy that had a
+sinister element in it, "and I can't deny myself the pleasure. Think of
+it! two healthy and beautiful girls under twenty-four who never leave
+the house they live in! That is being more unlike folks than Cynthia and
+myself, who were old and who had a fortune to guard. Besides we did
+leave the house, or rather I did, when there was business to look after
+or food to buy. But they don't go out for anything, I hear, <i>anything</i>.
+Mr. Ruthven&mdash;he is the minister you know&mdash;has given me his card by way
+of introduction; so you see they will have to treat me politely, and
+that means I shall at least see their faces."</p>
+
+<p>His cunning, his satisfaction, and a certain triumph underlying all,
+affected Frank like the hiss of a serpent. But the business awaiting him
+in New York was imperative, and the time remaining to him before the
+train left was barely enough to enable him to reach the station. So
+curbing his disgust and the dread he had of seeing this knave enter
+Hermione's door, he tore himself away and made what haste he could to
+the station. He arrived just as the first whistle of the coming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> train
+was heard, and owing to a short delay occasioned by the arrival of a
+telegram at the station, he was enabled to write two notes, one to Miss
+Cavanagh and one to Dr. Sellick. These he delivered to Jerry, with
+strict injunctions to deliver them immediately, and as the train moved
+off carrying him back to his duties, he had the satisfaction of seeing
+the lumbering figure of that slow but reliable messenger disappear
+around the curve in the highway which led directly to Miss Cavanagh's
+house.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+<a name="xvi" id="xvi"></a><span class="sub3">XVI.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">A STRANGE VISITOR.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank's</span> visit and interview with Hermione had this advantage for the
+latter, that it took away some of the embarrassment which her first
+meeting with Emma, after the revelations of the night before, had
+necessarily occasioned. She had breakfasted in her own room, feeling
+that it would be impossible for her to meet her sister's eye, but having
+been led into giving such proof of her preference for Mr. Etheridge, and
+the extent of his influence over her, there could of course be no
+further question of Dr. Sellick, or any need for explanations between
+herself and Emma regarding a past thus shown to be no longer of vital
+interest to her. When, therefore, she came in from the garden and saw
+Emma waiting for her at the side-door, she blushed, but that was all, in
+memory of the past night; and murmuring some petty commonplace, sought
+to pass her and enter again the house which she had not left before in a
+full year.</p>
+
+<p>But Emma, who was bright with a hope she had not felt in months, stopped
+her with a word.</p>
+
+<p>"There is an old man waiting in the parlor who says<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> he wants to see us.
+He sent in this card&mdash;it has Dr. Ruthven's name on it&mdash;and Doris says he
+seemed very eager and anxious. Can you guess who he can be?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," rejoined Hermione, wondering. "But we can soon see. Our visitors
+are not so numerous that we can afford to slight one." And tripping by
+Emma, she led the way into the parlor.</p>
+
+<p>A slight, meagre, eager-eyed man, clad in black and wearing a
+propitiatory smile on very thin lips, rose as she entered, and bowed
+with an awkward politeness that yet had something of the breeding of a
+gentleman in it.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione did not like his looks, but she advanced cordially enough,
+perhaps because her heart was lighter than usual, and her mind less
+under the strain of one horrible fixed idea than it had been in months.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do?" said she, and looked at him inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p>Huckins, with another bow, this time in recognition of her unexpected
+beauty and grace, shambled uneasily forward, and said in a hard,
+strained voice which was even more disagreeable than his face:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure you are very good to receive me, Miss Cavanagh. I&mdash;I had a
+great desire to come. Your father&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She drew back with a gasp.</p>
+
+<p>"My father&mdash;&mdash;" she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Was an old friend of mine," he went on, in a wheedling tone, in seeming
+oblivion of the effect his words had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> had upon her. "Did you never hear
+him speak of Hope, Seth Hope?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never," cried Hermione, panting, and looking appealingly at Emma, who
+had just entered the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet we were friends for years," declared the dissimulator, folding his
+hands with a dreary shake of his head.</p>
+
+<p>"For years?" repeated Emma, advancing and surveying him earnestly.</p>
+
+<p>"Our father was a much older man than you, Mr.&mdash;Mr. Hope."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, perhaps, I never saw him. But we corresponded for years. Have
+you not come across letters signed by my name, in looking over his
+effects?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Emma, firmly, while Hermione, looking very pale,
+retreated towards the door, where she stopped in mingled distress and
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"Then he must have destroyed them all," declared their visitor. "Some
+people do not keep letters. Yet they were full of information, I assure
+you; full, for it was upon the ever delightful subject of chemistry we
+corresponded, and the letters I wrote him sometimes cost me a week's
+effort to indite."</p>
+
+<p>Emma, who had never met a man like this before, looked at him with
+wide-open eyes. Had Hermione not been there, she would have liked to
+have played with his eccentricities, and asked him numberless questions.
+But with her sister shrinking in the doorway, she dared not encourage
+him to pursue a theme which she perceived<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> to be fraught with the
+keenest suffering for Hermione. So she refrained from showing the
+distrust which she really felt, and motioning the old man to sit down,
+asked, quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"And was it for these letters you came? If so, I am sorry that none such
+have been found."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," cried Huckins, with stammering eagerness, as he marked the
+elder sister's suspicious eyes and unencouraging manner. "It was not to
+get them back that I ventured to call upon you, but for the pleasure of
+seeing the house where he lived and did so much wonderful work, and the
+laboratory, if you will be so good. Why has your sister departed?" he
+suddenly inquired, in fretful surprise, pointing to the door where
+Hermione had stood a moment before.</p>
+
+<p>"She probably has duties," observed Emma, in a troubled voice. "And she
+probably was surprised to hear a stranger ask to see a room no one but
+the members of his family have entered since our father's death."</p>
+
+<p>"But I am not a stranger," artfully pursued the cringing Huckins, making
+himself look as benevolent as he could. "I am an admirer, a devoted
+admirer of your remarkable parent, and I could show you papers"&mdash;but he
+never did,&mdash;"of writing in that same parent's hand, in which he
+describes the long, narrow room, with its shelves full of retorts and
+crucibles, and the table where he used to work, with the mystic signs
+above it, which some said were characters taken from cabalistic books,
+but which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> informed me were the new signs he wished to introduce into
+chemistry, as being more comprehensive and less liable to
+misinterpretation than those now in use."</p>
+
+<p>"You do seem to know something about the room," she murmured softly, too
+innocent to realize that the knowledge he showed was such as he could
+have gleaned from any of Mr. Cavanagh's intimate friends.</p>
+
+<p>"But I want to see it with my own eyes. I want to stand in the spot
+where he stood, and drink in the inspiration of his surroundings, before
+I go back to my own great labor."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you a laboratory? Are you a chemist?" asked Emma, interested in
+despite of the dislike his wheedling ways and hypocritical air naturally
+induced.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, I have a laboratory," said he; "but there is no romance about
+mine; it is just the plain working-room of a hard-working man, while
+his&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Emma, who had paled at these words almost as much as her sister had done
+at his first speech about her father, recoiled with a look in which the
+wonderment was strangely like fear.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot show you the room," said she. "You exaggerate your desire to
+see it, as you exaggerate the attainments and the discoveries of my
+father. I must ask you to excuse me," she continued, with a slight
+acknowledgment in which dismissal could be plainly read. "I am very
+busy, and the morning is rapidly flying. If you could come again&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+But here Hermione's full deep tones broke from the open doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"If he wishes to see the place where father worked, let him come; there
+is no reason why we should hide it from one who professes such sympathy
+with our father's pursuits."</p>
+
+<p>Huckins, chuckling, looked at Emma, and then at her sister, and moved
+rapidly towards the door. Emma, who had been taken greatly by surprise
+by her sister's words, followed slowly, showing more and more
+astonishment as Hermione spoke of this place, or that, on their way
+up-stairs, as being the spot where her father's books were kept, or his
+chemicals stored, till they came to the little twisted staircase at the
+top, when she became suddenly silent.</p>
+
+<p>It was now Emma's turn to say:</p>
+
+<p>"This is the entrance to the laboratory. You see it is just as you have
+described it."</p>
+
+<p>Huckins, with a sly leer, stepped into the room, and threw around one
+quick, furtive look which seemed to take in the whole place in an
+instant. It was similar to his description, and yet it probably struck
+him as being very different from the picture he had formed of it in his
+imagination. Long, narrow, illy lighted, and dreary, it offered anything
+but a cheerful appearance, even in the bright July sunshine that sifted
+through the three small windows ranged along its side. At one end was a
+row of shelves extending from the floor to the ceiling, filled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> with
+jars, chemicals, and apparatus of various kinds. At the other end was a
+table for collecting gases, and beneath each window were more shelves,
+and more chemicals, and more apparatus. A large electric machine perched
+by itself in one corner, gave a grotesque air to that part of the room,
+but the chief impression made upon an observer was one of bareness and
+desolation, as of the husk of something which had departed, leaving a
+smell of death behind. The girls used the room for their dreary midnight
+walks; otherwise it was never entered, except by Doris, who kept it in
+perfect order, as a penance, she was once heard to declare, she having a
+profound dislike to the place, and associating it always, as we have
+before intimated, with some tragic occurrence which she believed to have
+taken place there.</p>
+
+<p>Huckins, after his first quick look, chuckled and rubbed his hands
+together, in well-simulated glee.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I see it?" he cried; "<i>the room</i> where the great Cavanagh thought
+and worked! It is a privilege not easily over-estimated." And he flitted
+from shelf to drawer, from drawer to table, with gusts of enthusiasm
+which made the cold, stern face of Hermione, who had taken up her stand
+in the doorway, harden into an expression of strange defiance.</p>
+
+<p>Emma, less filled with some dark memory, or more swayed by her anxiety
+to fathom his purposes, and read the secret of an intrusion which as yet
+was nothing but a troublous mystery to her, had entered the room with
+him,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> and stood quietly watching his erratic movements, as if she half
+expected him to abstract something from the hoard of old chemicals or
+collection of formulas above which he hung with such a pretence of
+rapture.</p>
+
+<p>"How good! how fine! how interesting!" broke in shrill ejaculation from
+his lips as he ambled hither and thither. But Emma noticed that his eye
+ever failed to dwell upon what was really choice or unique in the
+collection of her father's apparatus, and that when by chance he touched
+an alembic or lifted a jar, it was with an awkwardness that betrayed an
+unaccustomed hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not hold a retort in that way," she finally remarked, going up
+to him and taking the article in question out of his hand. "This is how
+my father was accustomed to handle them," she proceeded, and he, taken
+aback for the instant, blushed and murmured something about her father
+being his superior and she the very apt pupil of a great scholar and a
+very wise man.</p>
+
+<p>"You wanted to see the laboratory, and now you have seen it," quoth
+Hermione from her place by the door. "Is there anything else we can do
+for you?"</p>
+
+<p>The chill, stern tones seemed to rouse him and he turned towards the
+speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, my dear, no, no. You have been very good." But Emma noticed
+that his eyes still kept roaming here, there, and everywhere while he
+spoke, picking up information as a bird picks up worms.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+"What does he want?" thought she, looking anxiously towards her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"You have a very pleasant home," he now remarked, pausing at the head of
+those narrow stairs and peering into the nest of Hermione's own room,
+the door of which stood invitingly open. "Is that why you never leave
+it?" he unexpectedly asked, looking with his foxy eyes from one sister
+to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think it is necessary for us to answer you," said Emma, while
+Hermione, with a flash in her eye, motioned him imperiously down, saying
+as she slowly followed him:</p>
+
+<p>"Our friends do not consider it wise to touch upon that topic, how much
+more should a stranger hesitate before doing so?"</p>
+
+<p>And he, cowering beneath her commanding look and angry presence, seemed
+to think she was right in this and ventured no more, though his restless
+eyes were never still, and he appeared to count the very banisters as
+his hand slid down the railing, and to take in every worn thread that
+showed itself in the carpet over which his feet shuffled in almost
+undignified haste.</p>
+
+<p>When they were all below, he made one final remark:</p>
+
+<p>"Your father owed me money, but I do not think of pressing my claim. You
+do not look as if you were in a position to satisfy it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," exclaimed Emma, thinking she had discovered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> the motive of his
+visit at last; "that is why you wanted to see the laboratory."</p>
+
+<p>"Partly," he acknowledged with a sly wink, "but not altogether. All
+there is there would not buy up the I. O. U. I hold. I shall have to let
+the matter go with other bad debts I suppose. But three hundred dollars
+is a goodly sum, young ladies, a goodly sum."</p>
+
+<p>Emma, who knew that her father had not been above borrowing money for
+his experiments, looked greatly distressed for a moment, but Hermione,
+who had now taken her usual place as leader, said without attempting to
+disguise the tone of suspicion in her voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Substantiate your claim and present your bill and we will try to pay
+it. We have still a few articles of furniture left."</p>
+
+<p>Huckins, who had never looked more hypocritically insinuating or more
+diabolically alert, exclaimed,</p>
+
+<p>"I can wait, I can wait."</p>
+
+<p>But Hermione, with a grand air and a candid look, answered bitterly and
+at once:</p>
+
+<p>"What we cannot do now we can never do. Our fortunes are not likely to
+increase in the future, so you had better put in your claim at once, if
+you really want your pay."</p>
+
+<p>"You think so?" he began; and his eye, which had been bright before, now
+gleamed with the excitement of a fear allayed. "I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+But just then the bell rang with a loud twang, and he desisted from
+finishing his sentence.</p>
+
+<p>Emma went to the door and soon came back with a letter which she handed
+to Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>"The man Jerry brought it," she explained, casting a meaning look at her
+sister.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione, with a quick flush, stepped to the window and in the shadow of
+the curtains read her note. It was a simple word of warning.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Cavanagh</span>:</p>
+
+<p>I met a man at your gate who threatened to go in. Do not receive
+him, or if you have already done so, distrust every word he has
+uttered and cut the interview short. He is Hiram Huckins, the
+man concerning whom I spoke so frankly when we were discussing
+the will of the Widow Wakeham.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">Yours most truly,</p>
+<p class="right2"><span class="smcap">Frank Etheridge</span>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The flush with which Hermione read these lines was quite gone when she
+turned to survey the intruder, who had forced himself upon her
+confidence and that of her sister by means of a false name. Indeed she
+looked strangely pale and strangely indignant as she met his twinkling
+and restless eye, and, to any one who knew the contents of the note
+which she held, it would seem that her first words must be those of
+angry dismissal.</p>
+
+<p>But instead of these, she first looked at him with some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> curiosity, and
+then said in even, low, and slightly contemptuous tones:</p>
+
+<p>"Will you not remain and lunch with us, Mr. Huckins?"</p>
+
+<p>At this unexpected utterance of his name he gave a quick start, but soon
+was his cringing self again. Glancing at the letter she held, he
+remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear young lady, I see that Mr. Etheridge has been writing to you.
+Well, there is no harm in that. Now we can shake hands in earnest"; and
+as he held out his wicked, trembling palm, his face was a study for a
+painter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+<a name="xvii" id="xvii"></a><span class="sub3">XVII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">TWO CONVERSATIONS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">That</span> afternoon, as Emma was sitting in her own room, she was startled by
+the unexpected presence of Hermione. As they were not in the habit of
+intruding upon each other above stairs, Emma rose in some surprise. But
+Hermione motioning her back into her chair, fell at her feet in sudden
+abandon, and, laying her head in her sister's lay, gave way to one deep
+sob. Emma, too much astonished to move at this unexpected humiliation of
+one who had never before bent her imperious head in that household,
+looked at the rich black locks scattered over her knees with wonder if
+not with awe.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione!" she whispered, "Hermione! do not kneel to me, unless it be
+with joy."</p>
+
+<p>But the elder sister, clasping her convulsively around the waist,
+murmured:</p>
+
+<p>"Let me be humble for a moment; let me show that I have something in me
+besides pride, reckless endurance, and determined will. I have not shown
+it enough in the past. I have kept my sufferings to myself, and my
+remorse to myself, and alas! also all my stern recognition of your love
+and unparalleled devotion. I have felt your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> goodness, oh, I have felt
+it, so much so, at times, that I thought I could not live, ought not to
+live, just because of what I have done to <i>you</i>; but I never said
+anything, could not say anything! Yet all the remorse I experienced was
+nothing to what I experience now that I know I was not even loved&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Hush," broke in Emma, "let those days be forgotten. I only felt that
+you ought to know the truth, because sweeter prospects are before you,
+and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I understand," murmured Hermione, "you are always the great-hearted,
+unselfishly minded sister. I believe you would actually rejoice to see
+me happy now, even if it did not release you from the position you have
+assumed. But it shall release you; you shall not suffer any longer on my
+account. Even if it is only to give you the opportunity of&mdash;of meeting
+with Dr. Sellick, you shall go out of this house to-day. Do you hear me,
+Emma, <i>to-day</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>But the ever-gentle, ever-docile Emma rose up at this, quite pale in her
+resolution. "Till you put foot out of the gate I remain this side of
+it," said she. "Nothing can ever alter my determination in this regard."</p>
+
+<p>And Hermione, surveying her with slowly filling eyes, became convinced
+that it would be useless to argue this point, though she made an effort
+to do so by saying with a noble disregard of her own womanly shame which
+in its turn caused Emma's eyes to fill:</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Sellick has suffered a great wrong, I judge; don't you think you
+owe something to him?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+But Emma shook her head, though she could not prevent a certain wistful
+look from creeping into her face. "Not what I owe to you," said she, and
+then flushed with distress lest her sister should misjudge the meaning
+of her words.</p>
+
+<p>But Hermione was in a rarely generous mood. "But I release you from any
+promise you have made or any obligations you may consider yourself to be
+under. Great heaven! do you think I would hold you to them <i>now</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hold myself," cried Emma. "You cannot release me,&mdash;except," she
+added, with gentle intimation, "by releasing yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot release myself," moaned Hermione. "If we all perish I cannot
+release myself. <i>I</i> am a prisoner to this house, but you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We are sister prisoners," interpolated Emma, softly. Then with a sudden
+smile, "I was in hopes that he who led you to break one resolution might
+induce you to break another."</p>
+
+<p>But Hermione, flushing with something of her old fire, cried out warmly:
+"In going out of the house I broke a promise made to myself, but in
+leaving the grounds I should&mdash;oh, I cannot tell you what I should do;
+not even you know the full bitterness of my life! It is a secret, locked
+in this shrinking, tortured heart, which it almost breaks, but does not
+quite, or I should not linger in this dreadful world to be a cause of
+woe to those I cherish most."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+"But Hermione, Hermione&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You think you know what has set a seal on my lips, the gloom on my
+brow, the death in my heart; but you do not, Emma. You know much, but
+not the fatal grief, the irrepressible misery. But you shall know, and
+know soon. I have promised to write out the whole history of my life for
+Mr. Etheridge, and when he has read it you shall read it too. Perhaps
+when you learn what the real horror of this house has been, you may
+appreciate the force of will-power which it has taken for me to remain
+in it."</p>
+
+<p>Emma, who had never suspected anything in the past beyond what she
+herself knew, grew white with fresh dismay. But Hermione, seeing it,
+kissed her, and, speaking more lightly, said: "You kept back one vital
+secret from me in consideration of what you thought the limit of my
+endurance. I have done the same for you under the same consideration.
+Now we will equalize matters, and perhaps&mdash;who knows?&mdash;happier days may
+come, if Mr. Etheridge is not too much startled by the revelations I
+have to make him, and if Dr. Sellick&mdash;do not shrink, Emma&mdash;learns some
+magnanimity from his friend and will accept the explanations I shall
+think it my duty to offer him."</p>
+
+<p>But at this suggestion, so unlike any that had ever come from Hermione's
+lips before, the younger sister first stared, and then flung her arms
+around the speaker, with cries of soft deprecation and shame.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall not," she murmured. "Not if I lose him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> shall he ever know
+why that cruel letter was written. It is enough&mdash;it shall be
+enough&mdash;that he was dismissed <i>then</i>. If he loves me he will try his
+fate again. But I do not think he does love me, and it would be better
+for him that he did not. Would <i>he</i> ever marry a woman who, not even at
+his entreaty, could be induced to cross the limits of her home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Etheridge should not do it either; but he is so generous&mdash;perhaps
+so hopeful! He may not be as much so when he has read what I have to
+write."</p>
+
+<p>"I think he will," said Emma, and then paused, remembering that she did
+not know all that her sister had to relate.</p>
+
+<p>"He would be a man in a thousand then," whispered the once haughty
+Hermione. "A man to worship, to sacrifice all and everything to, that it
+was in one's power to sacrifice."</p>
+
+<p>"He will do what is right," quoth Emma.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione sighed. Was she afraid of the right?</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, in the poplar-walk below, another talk was being held, which,
+if these young girls could have heard it, might have made them feel even
+more bitterly than before, what heavy clouds lay upon any prospect of
+joy which they might secretly cherish. Doris, who was a woman of many
+thoughts, and who just now found full scope for all her ideas in the
+unhappy position of her two dear young ladies, had gone into the open
+air to pick currants and commune with herself as to what more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> could be
+done to bring them into a proper recognition of their folly in clinging
+to a habit or determination which seemed likely to plunge them into such
+difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>The currant bushes were at the farther end of the garden near the
+termination of the poplar-walk, and when, in one of the pauses of her
+picking, she chanced to look up, she saw advancing towards her down that
+walk the thin, wiry figure of the old man who had taken luncheon with
+the young ladies, and whom they called, in very peculiar tones, she
+thought, Mr. Huckins. He was looking from right to left as he came, and
+his air was one of contemplation or that of a person who was taking in
+the beauties of a scene new to him and not wholly unpleasant.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached the spot where Doris stood eying him with some curiosity
+and not a little distrust, he paused, looked about him, and perceiving
+her, affected some surprise, and stepped briskly to where she was.</p>
+
+<p>"Picking currants?" he observed. "Let me help you. I used to do such
+things when a boy."</p>
+
+<p>Astonished, and not a little gratified at what she chose to consider his
+condescension, Doris smiled. It was a rare thing now for a man to be
+seen in this lonesome old place, and such companionship was not
+altogether disagreeable to Mistress Doris.</p>
+
+<p>Huckins rubbed his hands together in satisfaction at this smile, and
+sidled up to the simpering spinster with a very propitiatory air.</p>
+
+<p>"How nice this all is," he remarked. "So rural, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> peaceful, and so
+pleasant. I come from a place where there is no fruit, nor flowers, nor
+young ladies. You must be happy here." And he gave her a look which she
+thought very insinuating.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am happy enough," she conceded, "because I am bound to be happy
+wherever the young ladies are. But I could wish that things were
+different too." And she thought herself very discreet that she had not
+spoken more clearly.</p>
+
+<p>"Things?" he repeated softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my young ladies have odd ideas; I thought you knew."</p>
+
+<p>He drew nearer to her side, very much nearer, and dropped the currants
+he had plucked gently into her pail.</p>
+
+<p>"I know they have a fixed antipathy to going out, but they will get over
+that."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think so?" she asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't <i>you</i>?" he queried, with an innocent look of surprise. He was
+improving in his dissimulation, or else he succeeded better with those
+of whom he had no fear.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what to think. Are you an old friend of theirs?" she
+inquired. "You must be, to lunch with them."</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw them before to-day," he returned, "yet I am an old friend.
+Reason that out," he leered.</p>
+
+<p>"You like to puzzle folks," she observed, picking very busily but
+smiling all the while. "Do you give answers with your puzzles?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+"Not to such sharp wits as yours. But how beautiful Miss Cavanagh is.
+Has she always had that scar?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since I knew her."</p>
+
+<p>"Pity she should have such a blemish. You like her, don't you, very
+much?"</p>
+
+<p>"I love her."</p>
+
+<p>"And her sister&mdash;such a sweet girl!"</p>
+
+<p>"I love them both."</p>
+
+<p>"That is right. I should be sorry to have any one about them who did not
+love them. <i>I</i> love them, or soon shall, very much."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you," Doris inquired, with great inquisitiveness, "going to remain
+in Marston any time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say," sighed the old man; "I should like to. I should be very
+happy here, but I am afraid the young ladies do not like me well
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>Doris had cherished some such idea herself an hour ago, and had not
+wondered at it then, but now her feelings seemed changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it to see them you came to Marston?" said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Merely to see them," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>She was puzzled, but more eager than puzzled, so anxious was she to find
+some one who could control their eccentricities.</p>
+
+<p>"They will treat you politely," she assured him. "They are peculiar
+girls, but they are always polite."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I shall not be satisfied with politeness," he insinuated.
+"I want them to love me, to confide in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> me. I want to be their friend in
+fact as I have so long been in fancy."</p>
+
+<p>"You are some relative of theirs," she now asserted, "or you knew their
+father well or their mother."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't say no," he replied,&mdash;but to which of these three
+intimations, he evidently did not think it worth while to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," she declared, "you are the man I want. Mr. Etheridge&mdash;that is
+the lawyer from New York who has lately been coming here&mdash;does not seem
+to have much confidence in himself or me. But you look as if you might
+do something or suggest something. I mean about getting the young ladies
+to give up their whims."</p>
+
+<p>"Has this Mr.&mdash;Mr. Etheridge, did you call him?&mdash;been doing their
+business long?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw him here till a month ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! a month ago! And do they like him? Do they seem inclined to take
+his advice? Does he press it upon them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I knew. I am only a poor servant, remember, though my bringing
+up was as good almost as theirs. They are kind to me, but I do not sit
+down in the parlor; if I did, I might know something of what is going
+on. I can only judge, you see, by looks."</p>
+
+<p>"And the looks? Come, I have a <i>great</i> interest in the young
+ladies&mdash;almost as great as yours. What do their looks say?&mdash;I mean since
+this young man came to visit them? He is a young man, didn't you say?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+"Yes, he is young, and so good-looking. I have thought&mdash;now don't spill
+the currants, just as we have filled the pail&mdash;that he was a little
+sweet on Miss Hermione, and that that was why he came here so often, and
+not because he had business."</p>
+
+<p>"You have?" twitted the old man, almost dancing about her in his sudden
+excitement. "Well, well, that must be seen to. A wedding, eh, a wedding?
+That's what you think is coming?" And Doris could not tell whether it
+was pleasure or alarm that gave so queer a look to his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot say&mdash;I wish I could," she fervently cried; "then I might hope
+to see a change here; then we might expect to see these two sweet young
+ladies doing like other folks and making life pleasant for themselves
+and every one about them. But Miss Hermione is a girl who would be very
+capable of saying no to a young man if he stood in the way of any
+resolve she had taken. I don't calculate much on her being influenced by
+love, or I would never have bothered you with my troubles. It is fear
+that must control her, or&mdash;&mdash;" Doris paused and looked at him
+knowingly&mdash;"or she must be lured out of the house by some cunning
+device."</p>
+
+<p>Huckins, who had been feeling his way up to this point, brightened as he
+noticed the slyness of the smile with which she emphasized this
+insinuation, and from this moment felt more assured. But he said nothing
+as yet to show how he was affected by her words. There was another
+little matter he wanted settled first.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+"Do you know," he asked, "why she, and her sister, too, I believe, have
+taken this peculiar freak? Have they ever told you, or have you ever&mdash;"
+how close his head got to hers, and how he nodded and peered&mdash;"surprised
+their secret?"</p>
+
+<p>Doris shook her head. "All a mystery," she whispered, and began picking
+currants again, that operation having stopped as they got more earnest.</p>
+
+<p>"But it isn't a mystery," he laughed, "why you want to get them out of
+the house just <i>now</i>. I know your reason for that, and think you will
+succeed without any device of love or cunning."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you," she protested, puckering her black brows and
+growing very energetic. "I don't want to do it <i>now</i> any more than I
+have for the last twelve months. Only I am getting desperate. I am not
+one who can want a thing and be patient. I <i>want</i> Miss Hermione Cavanagh
+and her sister to laugh and be gay like other girls, and till they give
+up all this nonsense of self-seclusion they never will; and so I say to
+myself that any measures are justifiable that lead to that end. Don't
+you think I am right?"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled warily and took her pail of currants from her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are the brightest woman and have one of the clearest heads
+I ever knew. I don't remember when I have seen a woman who pleased me so
+well. Shall we be friends? I am only a solitary bachelor, travelling
+hither and thither because I do not know how else to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> spend my money;
+but I am willing to work for your ends if you are willing to work for
+mine."</p>
+
+<p>"And what are they?" she simpered, looking very much delighted. Doris
+was not without ambition, and from this moment not without her hopes.</p>
+
+<p>"To make these young ladies trust me so that I may visit them off and on
+while I remain in this place. I thought it was pleasant here before, but
+<i>now</i>&mdash;&mdash;" The old fellow finished with a look and a sigh, and Doris'
+subjugation was complete.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she did not let him at this time any further into her plans,
+possibly because she had not formed any. She only talked on more and
+more about her love for the young ladies, and her wonder over their
+conduct, and he, listening for any chance word which might help him in
+his own perplexity, walked back at her side, till they arrived in sight
+of the house, when he gave her the pail and slunk back to come on later
+alone. But a seed was sown at that interview which was destined to bear
+strange fruit; and it is hard telling which felt the most satisfaction
+at the understood compact between them&mdash;the hard, selfish, and scheming
+miser, or the weak and obstinate serving-woman, who excused to herself
+the duplicity of her conduct by the plea, true enough as far as it went,
+that she was prompted by love for those she served, and a desire to see
+the two women she admired as bright and happy as their youth and beauty
+demanded.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+<a name="xviii" id="xviii"></a><span class="sub3">XVIII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">SUSPENSE.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> letter which Frank sent to Edgar described his encounter with
+Huckins, and expressed a wish that the Doctor would employ some proper
+person to watch his movements and see that he did not make himself
+disagreeable to the Misses Cavanagh, whom he had evidently set himself
+to annoy.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, was Etheridge's surprise to receive on the following day a
+reply from his friend, to the effect that Mr. Huckins had not only
+called upon the young ladies mentioned by him, but had made himself very
+much at home with them, having lunched, dined, and report even said
+breakfasted at their table.</p>
+
+<p>This was startling news to Frank, especially after the letter he had
+written to Hermione, but he restrained himself from returning at once to
+Marston, as he was half tempted to do, and wrote her again, this time
+beseeching her in plain words to have nothing to do with so suspicious a
+person as he knew this Huckins to be, and advised her where to appeal
+for assistance in case this intolerable intruder was not willing to be
+shaken off. This letter brought the following answer:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Etheridge</span>:</p>
+
+<p>Do not be concerned about us. Mr. Huckins will not trouble us
+unduly. Knowing his character, we are not likely to be misled by
+him, and it amuses us in our loneliness to have so queer and
+surprising a person as our guest.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Lovell is very sharp and keeps a keen eye upon him. He does
+not offend us except by his curiosity, but as that is excusable
+in an old man introduced into a household like ours, we try to
+make the best of it. When you come yourself we will dismiss the
+intruder.</p>
+
+<p class="right1">Ever sincerely yours,</p>
+<p class="right2"><span class="smcap">Hermione Cavanagh</span>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>This letter was put very near Frank's heart, but it did not relieve him
+from his anxiety. On the contrary, it added to his fears, because it
+added to his mystification. What did Huckins want of the Misses
+Cavanagh, and what was the real reason for the indulgence they showed
+him? Was there a secret in their connection which he ought to know? He
+began to hasten his business and plan to leave the city again, this time
+for more than a single night.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, Dr. Sellick was not without his own secret doubts. Hide it as
+he would, he still cherished the strongest affection for the once
+dimpling, dainty, laughing-eyed Emma. Not a day passed but he had to
+combat a fervent desire to pass her gate, though when he yielded to this
+temptation he went by like an automaton, and never looked to right or
+left unless it was dark night.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> His was a proud soul and an exacting
+one. His self-esteem had been hurt, and he could not bring himself to
+make even the shadow of an advance towards one who had been the
+instrument of his humiliation. And yet he trembled when he thought of
+misfortune approaching her, and was almost as anxious as Frank about the
+presence in her house of the hypocritical and unprincipled Huckins. Had
+he listened only for a moment to the pleading of his better instincts,
+he would have gone to their door and lent his entreaties to those of
+Frank for a speedy dismissal of their unreliable guest; but the hour had
+not yet come for such a self-betrayal, and so he refrained, even while
+cursing himself for a pride which would not yield even at the impending
+danger of one so passionately beloved.</p>
+
+<p>He however kept a man at watch upon the suspected stranger, a precaution
+which certainly did not amount to much, as the danger, if there was any,
+was not one which a detective stationed outside of the Misses Cavanagh's
+house would be able to avert.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Huckins, who was in his element, grew more insinuating and
+fatherly in his manner, day by day. To him this run of a house in which
+there lurked a mystery worth his penetrating, was a bliss that almost
+vied with that of feeling himself on the road to wealth. He pottered and
+poked about in the laboratory, till there was not a spot in the room or
+an article on the shelves which had not felt the touch of his hand; and
+Hermione<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> and Emma, with what some might have thought a curious
+disregard of their father's belongings, let him do this, merely
+restricting him from approaching their own rooms. Possibly they felt as
+if some of the gloom of the place was lifted by the presence of even
+this evil-eyed old man; and possibly the shadows which were growing
+around them both, as Hermione labored day after day upon the history she
+was writing for her lover, made this and every other circumstance
+disconnected with the important theme they were considering, of little
+moment to them. However that may be, he came and went as he would, and
+had many sly hours in the long, dim laboratory and in the narrow twisted
+corridors at the back of the house, and what was worse and perhaps more
+disastrous still, on the stairs and in the open doorways with Doris, who
+had learned to toss her head and smile very curiously while busying
+herself in the kitchen, or taking those brief minutes of respite abroad,
+which the duties of the place demanded. And so the week passed, and
+Saturday night came.</p>
+
+<p>It was seven o'clock, and train-time, and the blinds in the Cavanagh
+house guarding the front windows were tipped just a little. Behind one
+of these sat Emma, listening to the restless tread of Hermione pacing
+the floor in the room above. She knew that the all-important letter was
+done, but she could not know its contents, or what their effect would be
+upon the free, light-hearted man whose approach they were expecting. She
+thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> she ought to know all that Hermione had been through in the
+year which had passed, yet the wild words uttered by her sister in their
+late memorable interview, had left a doubt in her mind which a week's
+meditations had only served to intensify. Yet the fears to which it had
+given rise were vague, and she kept saying to herself: "There cannot be
+anything worse than I know. Hermione exaggerated when she intimated that
+she had a secret bitterer than that we keep together. She has suffered
+so much she cannot judge. I will hope that all will go right, and that
+Mr. Etheridge will receive her explanations and so make her his
+everlasting debtor. If once she is made to feel that she owes him
+something, she will gradually yield up her resolve and make both him and
+me happy. She will see that some vows are better broken than kept,
+and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of Hermione. The
+latter had not been able to walk off her excitement, and so had come
+down-stairs to bear the moments of suspense with her sister.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he will not stop," she cried. "I do not feel as if I could see
+him till&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You will have to," murmured Emma, "for here he comes." And the next
+moment the ardent, anxious face of the young lawyer appeared at the
+gate, making the whole outside world seem brighter to one pair of eyes
+which watched him.</p>
+
+<p>"He wants to talk about our visitor," declared Hermione.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> "I cannot talk
+about anything so trivial to-day; so do you see him, and when he rises
+to go, say that Doris will bring a certain packet to his door to-night.
+I will not meet his eyes till that ordeal is passed." And with a gasp
+that showed what this moment was to her, she flew from the room, just as
+Doris' step was heard in the hall on her way to the front door.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is your sister?" were the first words uttered by Frank, as he
+came into the room.</p>
+
+<p>"Upstairs," answered Emma. "She does not feel as if she can see you
+again till everything is clear between you. The letter she promised is
+written, and you shall have it to-night. Then if you wish to come
+again&mdash;&mdash;" her smile completed the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>He took heart at this smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not doubt," said he, "that I shall be here very early in the
+morning." And then he glanced all around him.</p>
+
+<p>"Does Huckins still bother you?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she cried, with some constraint, "we allow him to come here. 'Tis
+the least we can do for one&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She paused, and seemed to bite off her words.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not let us talk of trivialities," she completed, "till the great
+question of all is settled. To-morrow, if you come, we will speak of
+this visitor of whom you so little approve."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," he rejoined, with some wistfulness, and turned with his
+usual impetuosity towards the door. "I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> will go to Dr. Sellick's, then,
+at once, that I may receive your sister's communication the sooner. Tell
+her every moment will be an hour till it is in my hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Doris will carry it to you as soon as it is dark. Had we known you were
+going to stop here, she might have had it ready now. As it is, look for
+it as I have said, and may it bring you no deeper pain than the mystery
+of our seclusion has already done. Hermione has noble qualities, and if
+her temper had never been injured by the accident which befell her in
+her infancy, there might have been no call for Doris' errand to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"I will remember that," said he, and left the house with the confident
+smile of a man who feels it impossible to doubt the woman towards whom
+his heart has gone out in the fullest love.</p>
+
+<p>When the door was shut behind him, Hermione came stealing again
+down-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Does he&mdash;is he&mdash;prepared to receive the letter?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>Emma nodded. "I promised that it should go as soon as it is dusk."</p>
+
+<p>"Then send Doris to me in half an hour; and do not try to see me again
+to-night. I must bear its long and tedious hours alone." And for a
+second time Hermione disappeared from the room.</p>
+
+<p>In half an hour Doris was sent upstairs. She found Hermione standing in
+the centre of her room with a thick packet in her hand. She was very
+pale and her eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> blazed strangely. As Doris advanced she held out the
+packet with a hand that shook notwithstanding all her efforts to render
+it firm.</p>
+
+<p>"Take this," she said; "carry it to where Mr. Etheridge stays when here,
+and place it in his hands yourself, just as you did a former note I
+entrusted to you."</p>
+
+<p>Doris, with a flush, seized the letter, her face one question, but her
+lips awed from speaking by the expression of her mistress' face.</p>
+
+<p>"You will do what I say?" asked Hermione.</p>
+
+<p>The woman nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Go then, and do not wait for an answer; there will be none to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Her gesture of dismissal was imperative and Doris turned to go.</p>
+
+<p>But Hermione had one word more to say. "When you come back," she added,
+"come to my door and tap on it three times. By that I shall know you
+have delivered the letter; but you need not come in."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Miss," answered the woman, speaking for the first time. And
+as Hermione turned her back, she gave her young mistress one burning,
+inquisitive look and then slid out of the room with her eyes on the
+packet which she almost seemed to devour with her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>As she passed the laboratory door she detected the thin weasel-like face
+of Huckins looking out.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?" he whispered, pointing eagerly at the packet.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+"Be in the highway at Dobbins' corner, and I'll tell you," she slyly
+returned, going softly on her way.</p>
+
+<p>And he, with a chuckle which ought to have sounded through that house
+like a premonition of evil, closed the laboratory door with a careful
+hand, and descending the twisted staircase which led to the hall below,
+prepared to follow out her injunction in his own smooth and sneaking
+way.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll spend the evening at the prayer-meeting," he declared,
+looking in at Emma, as he passed the sitting-room door. "I feel the need
+of such comfort now and then. Is there anything I can do for either of
+you up street?"</p>
+
+<p>Emma shook her head; she was glad to be rid of his company for this one
+evening; and he went out of the front door with a quiet, benevolent air
+which may not have imposed on her, but which certainly did on Doris, who
+was watching from the garden to see him go.</p>
+
+<p>They met, as she had suggested, at Dobbins' corner. As it was not quite
+dark, they walked into a shaded and narrow lane where they supposed
+themselves to be free from all observation.</p>
+
+<p>"Now tell me," said he, "what your errand is. That it is important I
+know from the way you look. What is it, good, kind Doris; anything that
+will help us in our plans?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps," said she. "It is a letter for Mr. Etheridge; see how big and
+thick it is. It ought to tell a deal, this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> letter; it ought to explain
+why she never leaves the house."</p>
+
+<p>The woman's curious excitement, which was made up of curiosity and a
+real desire to know the secret of what affected her two young mistresses
+so closely, was quickly communicated to the scheming, eager old man.
+Taking the packet from her hand, he felt of it with trembling and
+inquisitive fingers, during which operation it would have been hard to
+determine upon which face the desire to break the seal was most marked.</p>
+
+<p>"It may contain papers&mdash;law papers," he suggested, his thumb and
+forefinger twitching as they passed over the fastening.</p>
+
+<p>But Doris shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she declared vivaciously, "there are no law-papers in that
+envelope. She has been writing and writing for a week. It is her secret,
+I tell you&mdash;the secret of all their queer doings, and why they stay in
+the house so persistently."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let us surprise that secret," said he. "If we want to help them
+and make them do like other reasonable folks, we must know with what we
+have to contend."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure we would be justified," she rejoined. "But I am afraid Miss
+Hermione will find us out. Mr. Etheridge will tell her somebody meddled
+with the fastening."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+"Let me take the letter to the hotel, and I will make that all right. It
+is not the first&mdash;&mdash;" But here he discreetly paused, remembering that
+Doris was not yet quite ready to receive the full details of his
+history.</p>
+
+<p>"But the time? It will take an hour to open and read all there is
+written here, and Miss Hermione is waiting for me to tell her that I
+have delivered it to Mr. Etheridge."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell her you had other errands. Go to the stores&mdash;the neighbors. She
+need never know you delivered this last."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you take it I won't know what is in it, and I want to read it
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you everything she writes. My memory is good, and you shall
+not miss a word."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It is your only chance," he insinuated; "the young ladies will never
+tell you themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it; yet it seems a mean thing to do. Can you close the letter so
+that neither he nor they will ever know it has been opened?"</p>
+
+<p>"Trust me," he leered.</p>
+
+<p>"Hurry then; I will be in front of Dr. Sellick's in an hour. Give me the
+letter as you go by, and when I have delivered it, meet me on my way
+back and tell me what she says."</p>
+
+<p>He promised, and hastened with his treasure to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> room he still kept
+at the hotel. She watched him as long as he was in sight and then went
+about her own improvised errands. Did she realize that she had just put
+in jeopardy not only her young mistresses' fortunes, but even their
+lives?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+<a name="xix" id="xix"></a><span class="sub3">XIX.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">A DISCOVERY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank Etheridge</span> waited a long time that night for the promised
+communication. Darkness came, but no letter; eight o'clock struck, and
+still there was no sign of the dilatory Doris. Naturally impatient, he
+soon found this lengthy waiting intolerable. Edgar was busy in his
+office, or he would have talked to him. The evening paper which he had
+brought from New York had been read long ago, and as for his cigar, it
+lacked flavor and all power to soothe him. In his exasperation he went
+to the book-shelves, and began looking over the numberless volumes
+ranged in neat rows before him. He took out one, glanced at it, and put
+it back; he took out another, without even seeing what its title was,
+looked at it a moment, sighed, and put that back; he took out a third,
+which opened in his hand at the title-page, saw that it was one of those
+old-fashioned volumes, designated <i>The Keepsake</i>, and was about to close
+and replace it as he had done the others, when his attention was
+suddenly and forcibly attracted by a name written in fine and delicate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+characters on the margin at the top. It was no other than this:</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Harriet Smith</span><br />
+Gift of her husband<br />
+October 3rd 1848</p>
+
+<p><i>Harriet Smith!</i> Astounded, almost aghast, he ran to Edgar's office with
+the volume.</p>
+
+<p>"Edgar! Edgar!" he cried; "look here! See that name! And the book was in
+your library too. What does it mean? Who was, who is Harriet Smith, that
+you should have her book?"</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Sellick, taken by surprise, stared at the book a minute, then jumped
+to his feet in almost as much excitement as Frank himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I got that book from Hermione Cavanagh years ago; there was a poem in
+it she wanted me to read. I did not know I had the book now. I have
+never even thought of it from that day to this. Harriet Smith! Yes, that
+is the name you want, and they must be able to tell you to whom it
+belongs."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe it; I know it; I remember now that they have always shown an
+interest in the matter. Hermione wanted to read the will, and&mdash;Edgar,
+Edgar, can they be the heirs for whom we are searching, and is that why
+Huckins haunts the house and is received by them in plain defiance of my
+entreaties?"</p>
+
+<p>"If they are the heirs they would have been likely to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> have told you.
+Penniless young girls are not usually backward in claiming property
+which is their due."</p>
+
+<p>"That is certainly true, but this property has been left under a
+condition. I recollect now how disappointed Hermione looked when she
+read the will. Give me the book; I must see her sister or herself at
+once about it." And without heeding the demurs of his more cautious
+friend, Frank plunged from the house and made his way immediately to the
+Cavanagh mansion.</p>
+
+<p>His hasty knock brought Emma to the door. As he encountered her look and
+beheld the sudden and strong agitation under which she labored, he
+realized for the first time that he was returning to the house before
+reading the letter upon which so much depended.</p>
+
+<p>But he was so filled with his new discovery that he gave that idea but a
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Cavanagh&mdash;Emma," he entreated, "grant me a moment's conversation.
+I have just found this book in Dr. Sellick's library&mdash;a book which he
+declares was once given him by your sister&mdash;and in it&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>They had entered the parlor by this time and were standing by a table
+upon which burned a lamp&mdash;&mdash;"is a name."</p>
+
+<p>She started, and was bending to look at the words upon which his finger
+rested, when the door opened. Hermione, alarmed and not knowing what to
+think of this unexpected return of her lover so soon, as she supposed,
+after the receipt of her letter, had come down from her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> room in that
+mood of extreme tension which is induced by an almost unendurable
+suspense.</p>
+
+<p>Frank, who in all his experience of her had never seen her look as she
+did at this moment, fell back from the place where he stood and hastily
+shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't look like that," he cried, "or you will make me feel I can never
+read your letter."</p>
+
+<p>"And have you not read it?" she demanded, shrinking in her turn till she
+stood on the threshold by which she had entered. "Why then are you here?
+What could have brought you back so soon when you knew&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"This," he interpolated hastily, holding up the book which he had let
+fall on the table at her entrance. "See! the name of Harriett Smith is
+written in it. Tell me, I pray, why you kept from me so persistently the
+fact that you knew the person to whom the property I hold in trust
+rightfully belongs."</p>
+
+<p>The two girls with a quick glance at each other drooped their heads.</p>
+
+<p>"What was the use?" murmured Emma, "since
+<a name="Harriet" id="Harriet"></a><ins title="Original has Hariet">Harriet</ins> Smith is
+dead and her heirs can never claim the property. <i>We</i> are her heirs, Mr.
+Etheridge; Harriet Smith was our mother, married to father thirty-nine
+years ago after a widowhood of only three months. It was never known in
+this place that she had had a former husband or had borne the name of
+Smith. There was so much scandal and unhappiness connected with her
+first most miserable marriage, that she suppressed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> facts concerning
+it as much as possible. She was father's wife and that was all that the
+people about here knew."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," said Frank, wondering greatly at this romance in real life.</p>
+
+<p>"But you might have told me," he exclaimed. "When you saw what worriment
+this case was causing me, you might have informed me that I was
+expending my efforts in vain."</p>
+
+<p>"I wished to do so," answered Emma, "but Hermione dreaded the arguments
+and entreaties which would follow."</p>
+
+<p>"I could not bear the thought of them," exclaimed the girl from the
+doorway where she stood, "any more than I can bear the thought now when
+a matter of much more importance to me demands your attention."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go," cried Frank. But it was to the empty doorway he spoke;
+Hermione had vanished with these passionate words.</p>
+
+<p>"She is nearly ill," explained Emma, following him as he made for the
+door. "You must excuse one who has borne so much."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not excuse her," he cried, "I love her." And the look he cast up
+the stairs fully verified this declaration. "That is why I go with half
+on my lips unsaid. To-morrow we will broach the topic again, meanwhile
+beware of Huckins. He means you no good by being here. Had I known his
+connection with you, he should never have entered these doors."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+"He is our uncle; our mother's brother."</p>
+
+<p>"He is a scamp who means to have the property which is rightfully your
+due."</p>
+
+<p>"And he will have it, I suppose," she returned. "Hermione has never
+given me a hope that she means to contend with him in this matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione has had no counsellor but her own will. To-morrow she will
+have to do with me. But shut the door on Huckins; promise me you will
+not see him again till after you have seen me."</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot&mdash;I know too little what is in that letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that letter!" he cried, and was gone from the house.</p>
+
+<p>When he arrived at Dr. Sellick's again, he found Doris awaiting him,
+looking very flushed and anxious. She had a shawl drawn around her, and
+she held some bundles under that shawl.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," she said, "that you did not get impatient, waiting for me. I
+had some errands to do, and while doing them I lost the letter you
+expected and had to go back and look for it. I found it lying under the
+counter in Mr. Davis' store and that is why it is so soiled, but the
+inside is all right, and I can only beg your pardon for the delay."</p>
+
+<p>Drawing the packet from under her shawl, she handed it to the frowning
+lawyer, her heart standing still as she saw him turn it over and over in
+his hand. But his looks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> if angry were not suspicious, and with a
+relieved nod she was turning to go when he observed:</p>
+
+<p>"I have one word to say to you, Doris. You have told me that you have
+the welfare of the young ladies you serve at heart. Prove this to be so.
+If Mr. Huckins comes to the door to-night, or in the early morning, say
+that Miss Cavanagh is not well and that he had better go to the hotel.
+Do not admit him; <i>do not even open the door</i>, unless Miss Cavanagh or
+her sister especially command you to do so. He is not a safe friend for
+them, and I will take the responsibility of whatever you do."</p>
+
+<p>Doris, with wide-stretched eyes and panting breath, paused to collect
+her faculties. A week ago she would have received this intimation
+regarding anybody Mr. Etheridge might choose to mention, with gratitude
+and a certain sense of increased importance. But ambition and the sense
+of being on intimate and secret terms with a man and bachelor who
+boasted of his thousands, had made a change in her weak and cunning
+heart, and she was disposed to doubt the lawyer's judgment of what was
+good for the young ladies and wise for her.</p>
+
+<p>But she did not show her doubt to one whom she had secretly wronged so
+lately; on the contrary she bowed with seeming acquiescence, and saying,
+"Leave me alone to take good care of my young ladies," drew her shawl
+more closely about her and quietly slid from the house.</p>
+
+<p>A man was standing in the shadow of a great elm on the corner.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+As she passed, he whispered: "Don't stop, and don't expect to see me
+to-night. There is some one watching me, I am sure. To-morrow, if I can
+I will come."</p>
+
+<p>She had done a wicked and dangerous thing, and she had not learned the
+secret.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+<a name="xx" id="xx"></a><span class="sub3">XX.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span>, being left alone, sat down with the letter Doris had given him.
+These are the words he read:</p>
+
+<p class="noi">"<span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Etheridge</span>:</p>
+
+<p>"I must ask you to walk by my house as early as nine o'clock to-morrow
+morning. If, having read this letter, you still feel ready to meet fate
+at my side, you will enter and tell me so. But if the horror that has
+rested upon my life falls with this reading upon yours, then pass by on
+the other side, and I will understand your verdict and accept it.</p>
+
+<p>"It was at a very early age that I first felt the blight which had
+fallen upon my life with the scar which disfigures one side of my face.
+Such expressions as 'Poor dear! what a pity!'&mdash;'She would be very
+beautiful if it were not for that,' make a deep impression upon a
+child's mind, especially if that child has a proud and sensitive nature,
+eager for admiration and shrinking from pity. Emma, who is only a year
+younger than myself, seemed to me quite an enviable being before I knew
+what the word envy meant, or why I felt so hot and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> angry when the
+neighbors took her up and caressed her, while they only cast looks of
+compassion at me. I hated her and did not know it; I hated the
+neighbors, and I hated the places where they met, and the home where I
+was born. I only loved my mother; perhaps, because she alone never spoke
+of my misfortune, and when she kissed me did not take pains to choose
+that side of my face which was without blemish. O my mother! if she had
+lived! But when I was just fifteen, and was feeling even more keenly
+than ever what it was to have just missed being the beauty of the town,
+she died, and I found myself left with only a stern and cruelly
+abstracted father for guardian, and for companion a sister, who in those
+days was a girl so merry by nature, and so full of play and sport, that
+she was a constant source of vexation to me, who hated mirth, and felt
+aggrieved by a cheerfulness I could not share. These passions of
+jealousy and pride did not lessen with me as I slowly ripened into
+womanhood. All our family have been victims of their own indomitable
+will, and even Emma, gentle as you see her to be now, used to have
+violent gusts of temper when she was crossed in her plans or pleasures.
+I never flashed out into bitter speech as she did, or made a noise when
+I was angry, but I had that slow fire within me which made me perfectly
+inexorable when I had once made up my mind to any course&mdash;no one, not
+even my father or my sister, having the least influence over me. And so
+it was that those who knew me began to dread me, even while they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> were
+forced to acknowledge that I possessed certain merits of heart and
+understanding. For the disappointment which had soured my disposition
+had turned me towards study for relief, and the determination to be
+brilliant, if I could not be beautiful, came with my maturity, and saved
+me, perhaps, from being nothing but a burden to my family and friends.</p>
+
+<p>"It was Mr. Lothrop, the Episcopalian minister, who first gave me this
+turn toward serious pursuits. He was a good man, who had known my
+mother, and after her death he used to come to the house, and finding me
+moping in a corner, while Emma made the room gay with her talk, he would
+draw me out with wonderful stories of women who had become the centre of
+a great society by the brilliance of their attainments and the sparkle
+of their wit. Once he called me beautiful, and when he saw the deep
+flush, which I could not subdue, mantle my cheeks and agitate my whole
+body, he took me very kindly by the hand, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"'Hermione, you have splendid powers. Perhaps God allowed a little
+defect to fall upon your beauty, in order to teach you the value of the
+superior faculties with which you are endowed. You can be a fine, grand
+woman, if you will.'</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! he did not know that one unconscious tribute to my personal
+attractions would just then have gone much farther with me than any
+amount of appreciation for my mental abilities. Yet his words had their
+effect, and from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> that moment I began to study&mdash;not as my father did,
+with an absorbed, passionate devotion to one line of thought; that
+seemed to me narrow and demoralizing, perhaps because almost every
+disappointment or grief incident to those days could be traced to my
+father's abstraction to everything disconnected with his laboratory. If
+I wished to go to the city, or extend my knowledge of the world by
+travel, it was: 'I have an experiment on hand; I cannot leave the
+laboratory.' If I wished a new gown, or a set of books, it was: 'I am
+not rich, and I must use all my spare means in buying the apparatus I
+need, or the chemicals which are necessary to the discoveries I am in
+the way of making.' Yet none of those discoveries or experiments ever
+resulted in anything further than the acquiring on his part of a purely
+local fame for learning. Therefore no special branch for me, but a
+general culture which would fit me to shine in any society it might
+henceforth be my good fortune to enter.</p>
+
+<p>"My father might brood over his books, and bend his back over the retort
+and crucible; my sister might laugh and attract the liking of a crowd of
+foolish heads, but I would be the Sevigny, the Rambouillet of my time,
+and by the eloquence of my conversation and the grace of my manner win
+for myself that superiority among women which nature had designed for
+me, but of which cruel fate had robbed me, even before I knew its worth.</p>
+
+<p>"You will say these are great hopes for a village<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> girl who had never
+travelled beyond her native town, and who knew the great world only
+through the medium of books. But is it not in villages and quiet
+sequestered places that lofty ambitions are born? Is it the city boy who
+becomes the President of our United States, or the city girl who
+startles the world with her talent as poet, artist, or novelist?</p>
+
+<p>"I read, and learned the world, and felt that I knew my place in it.
+When my training should be complete, when I had acquired all that my
+books and the companionship of the best minds in Marston could teach,
+then I would go abroad, and in the civilization of other lands complete
+the education which had now become with me a passion, because in it I
+saw the stepping-stone to the eminence I sought.</p>
+
+<p>"I speak plainly; it is necessary. You must know what was passing in my
+mind during my girlhood's years, or you will not understand me or the
+temptations which befell me. Besides, in writing thus I am preparing
+myself for the revelation of a weakness I have shrunk till now from
+acknowledging. It must be made. I cannot put it off any longer. I must
+speak of Dr. Sellick, and explain if possible what he gradually became
+to me in those lonely and studious years.</p>
+
+<p>"I had known him from a child, but I did not begin to think of him till
+he began to visit our house. He was a student then, and he naturally
+took a great interest in chemistry. My father's laboratory was
+convenient, well-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>stocked with apparatus, and freely opened to him. To
+my father's laboratory he accordingly came every day when he was in
+town, till it began to be quite a matter of course to see him there.</p>
+
+<p>"I was very busy that summer, and for some time looked upon this only as
+a habit on his part, and so took little heed of his presence. But one
+day, being weary with the philosophy I had been studying, I took from
+the shelves a book of poems, and sitting down in the dimmest corner of
+our stiff old parlor, I began to read some impassioned verses, which,
+before I knew it, roused my imagination and inflamed my heart to a point
+which made it easy for any new romantic impression to be made upon me.</p>
+
+<p>"At this instant fate and my ever-cruel destiny brought into my presence
+Edgar Sellick. He had been like myself hard at work, and had become
+weary, and anxious perhaps for a change, or, as I am now compelled to
+think, eager to talk of one whose very existence I was tempted to forget
+when she was, as then, away from home. He had come into the room where I
+was, and was standing, flushed and handsome, in the one bright streak of
+sunlight that flashed at that moment over the floor. I had always liked
+him, and thought him the only real gentleman in town, but something
+quite new in my experience made my heart swell as I met his eyes that
+day, and though I will not call it love (not now), it was something
+which greatly moved me and made me feel that in the gaze and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> seeming
+interest of this man I saw the true road to happiness and to the only
+life which would ever really satisfy me. For, let it be my excuse, under
+all my vanity, a vanity greater for the seeming check it had received,
+dwelt an ardent and irrepressible desire for affection, such affection
+as I had never received since my dying mother laid her trembling hand
+upon my head and bade me trust the good God for a happiness I had never
+possessed. My disfigurement owed its deepest sting to the fact, never
+revealed to others before, and scarcely acknowledged to myself then,
+that it stood in the way, as I thought, to my ever being passionately
+beloved. When, therefore, I saw the smile on Dr. Sellick's face, and
+realized that he was looking for me, I rose up with new hopes in my
+heart and a new brightness in my life.</p>
+
+<p>"But we said nothing, he or I, beyond the merest commonplaces, and had
+my powers of observation been as keen then as they are now, since a new
+light has been shed upon those days, I would have perceived that his eye
+did not brighten when it rested upon me, save when some chance mention
+was made of Emma, and of the pleasures she was enjoying abroad. But no
+doubts came to me at that time. Because my heart was warm I took it for
+granted that his was so also, and not dreaming of any other reason for
+his attentions than the natural one of his desiring my society for its
+own sake, I gradually gave myself up to a feeling of which it is shame
+now for me to speak, but which, as it was the origin of all my
+troubles,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> I must compel myself to acknowledge here in all its force and
+fervor.</p>
+
+<p>"The fact that he never uttered a word of love or showed me any
+attention beyond that of being constantly at my side, did not serve to
+alarm or even dispirit me. I knew him to have just started upon his
+career as physician, and also knew him to be proud, and was quite
+content to cherish my hopes and look towards a future that had
+unaccountably brightened into something very brilliant indeed.</p>
+
+<p>"It was while matters were in this condition that Emma came home from
+her trip. I remember the occasion well, and how pretty she looked in her
+foreign gowns. You, who have only seen her under a shadow, cannot
+imagine how pleasing she was, fresh from her happy experiences abroad,
+and an ocean trip, which had emphasized the roses on her cheek and the
+brightness in her eyes. But though I saw it all and felt that I could
+never compete with the gaiety which was her charm, I did not feel that
+old sickly jealousy of her winsome ways which once distorted her figure
+in my eyes, nor did I any longer hate her laugh or shrink from her merry
+banter. For I had my own happiness, as I thought, and could afford to be
+lenient towards a gay young thing who had no secret hope like mine to
+fill her heart and make it too rich with joy for idle mirth.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a gay season for humble little Marston, and various picnics
+followed by a ball in Hartford promised<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> festivities enough to keep us
+well alive. I did not care for festivities, but I did care for Dr.
+Sellick, and picnics and balls offered opportunities beyond those given
+by his rather commonplace visits to the house. I therefore looked
+forward to the picnics at the seashore with something like expectancy,
+and as proof of my utter blindness to the real state of affairs, it
+never even entered into my head that it would be the scene of his first
+meeting with Emma after an absence of many months.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor did any behavior on his part at this picnic enlighten me as to his
+true feelings, or the direction in which they ran. He greeted Emma in my
+presence, and the unusual awkwardness with which he took her hand told
+me nothing, though it may have whispered something to her. I only
+noticed that he had the most refined features and the most intellectual
+head of any one present, and was very happy thereat, and disposed to
+accord him an interview if he showed any inclination to draw me away
+from the rest of the merry-makers. But he did not, though he strolled
+several times away by himself; and once I saw him chatting with Emma;
+but this fact made no impression upon me and my Fool's Paradise remained
+still intact.</p>
+
+<p>"But that night on reaching home I felt that something was going wrong.
+Aunt Lovell was then with us, and I saw her cast a glance of dismay upon
+me as I entered the room where she and Emma had been closeted together.
+Emma, too, looked out of sorts, and hardly spoke to me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> when I passed
+her in the hall. Indeed, that quick temper of which I have already
+spoken was visible in her eyes, and if I had opened my own lips I am
+sure she would have flashed out with some of her bitter speeches. But I
+was ignorant of having given her any cause for anger; so, thinking she
+was jealous of the acquirements which I had made in her absence, and the
+advantages they now gave me in any gathering where cultured people came
+together, I hurried by her in some disdain, and in the quiet of my own
+room regained the equanimity my aunt's look and Emma's manifest
+ill-feeling towards me had for a moment shaken.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the last time I was to encounter anger in that eye. When I met
+her next morning I discovered that some great change had passed over
+her. The high spirits I had always secretly deprecated were gone, and in
+their place behold an indescribable gentleness of manner which has never
+since forsaken her.</p>
+
+<p>"But this was not all; her attitude towards me was different. From
+indifference it had budded into love; and if one can become devoted in a
+night, then was it devotion that she showed in every look and every word
+she bestowed upon me from that day. The occasion for this change I did
+not then know; when I did, a change passed over me also.</p>
+
+<p>"Meantime a grave event took place. I was out walking, and my path took
+me by the church. I mean the one that stands by itself on the top of the
+hill. Perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> you have been there, perhaps you have not. It is a
+lonesome-looking structure, but it has pleasant surroundings, while the
+view of the sea which you get from its rear is superb. I often used to
+go there, just for the breath of salt-water that seemed to hover about
+the place, and as there was a big flat stone in the very spot most
+favorable for observation, I was accustomed to sit there for hours with
+my book or pencil for company.</p>
+
+<p>"Had Edgar Sellick loved me he would have been acquainted with my
+habits. This is apparent to me now, but then I seemed to see nothing
+beyond my own wishes and hopes. But this does not explain what happened
+to me there. I was sitting on the stone of which I have spoken, and was
+looking at the long line of silver light on the horizon which we call
+the sea, when I suddenly heard voices. Two men were standing on the
+other side of the church, engaged, in all probability, in gazing at the
+landscape, but talking on a subject very remote from what they saw
+before them. I heard their words distinctly. They were these:</p>
+
+<p>"'I tell you she is beautiful.'</p>
+
+<p>"I did not recognize the voice making use of this phrase, but the one
+that answered was well known to me, and its tones went through me like a
+knife.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, yes, if you only see one side of her face.'</p>
+
+<p>"They were speaking of me, and the last voice, careless, indifferent,
+almost disdainful as it was, was that of Edgar Sellick.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+"I quailed as at a mortal blow, but I did not utter a sound. I do not
+know as I even moved; but that only shows the control a woman
+unconsciously holds over herself. For nothing short of a frenzied scream
+could have voiced the agony I felt, or expressed the sudden revolt which
+took place within me, sickening me at once with life, past, present, and
+future. Not till they had strolled away did I rise and dash down the
+hill into the wood that lies at its foot, but when I felt myself alone
+and well shielded from the view of any chance observer, I groaned again
+and again, and wrung my hands in a misery to which I can do but little
+justice now. I had been thrust so suddenly out of paradise. I had been
+so sure of <i>his</i> regard, <i>his</i> love. The scar which disfigured me in
+other eyes had been, as I thought, no detriment in his. He loved me, and
+saw nothing in me but what was consistent with that love. And now I
+heard him with my own ears speak contemptuously of that scar. All that I
+had hoped, all that I had confided in, was gone from me in an instant,
+and I felt myself toppling into a misery I could neither contemplate nor
+fathom. For an hour I walked the paths of that small wood, communing
+with myself; then I took my resolve. Life, which had brought me nothing
+but pain and humiliation, was not worth living. The hopes I had
+indulged, the love in which I had believed, had proved a mockery, and
+the shame which their destruction brought was worse than death, and so
+to be more shunned than death. I was determined to die.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+"The means were ready to my hand. Further on in that very wood I knew of
+a pool. It was a deep, dark, deadly place, as its name of Devil's
+Cauldron betokens, and in it I felt I could most fitly end the life that
+was dear to no one. I began to stray towards that place. As I went I
+thought of home, but with no feelings of longing or compunction. Emma
+might be kind, had been kind for the last day or so, but Emma did not
+love me, would not sacrifice anything for me, would not grieve, save in
+the decent way her sisterhood would naturally require. As for my father,
+he would feel the interruption it would cause in his experiments, but
+that would not last long, and in a few days he would be again in his
+beloved laboratory. No one, not a single being, unless it was dear Aunt
+Lovell, would sincerely mourn me or sigh over the death of the poor girl
+with a scar. Edgar Sellick might raise his eyebrows in some surprise,
+and Edgar Sellick should know what a careless word could do. I had a
+pencil and paper in my pocket, and I meant to use them. He should not go
+through life happy and careless, when a line from me would show him that
+the death of one who had some claims upon his goodness, lay at his door.</p>
+
+<p>"The sight of the dim, dark pool did not frighten me from these
+intentions. I was in that half-maddened state of disgust and shame which
+makes the promise of any relief look inviting and peaceful. I loved the
+depth of that cool, clear water. I saw in it rest, peace, oblivion. Had
+I not had that letter to write I would have tasted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> that rest and peace,
+and these words would never have come to your eyes. But the few minutes
+I took to write some bitter and incoherent lines to Dr. Sellick saved me
+from the doom I contemplated. Have I reason to be thankful it was so?
+To-morrow morning will tell me.</p>
+
+<p>"The passion which guided my pencil was still in my face when I laid the
+paper down on the bank and placed a stone above it. The eyes which saw
+those evidences of passion were doubtless terrified by them, for as I
+passed to the brink of the pool and leaned over it I felt a frenzied
+grasp on my arm, and turning, I met the look of Emma fixed upon me in
+mortal terror and apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"'What are you going to do?' she cried. 'Why are you leaning over the
+Devil's Cauldron like that?'</p>
+
+<p>"I had not wished to see her or to say good-by to any one. But now, that
+by some unaccountable chance she had come upon me, in my desperation I
+would give her one kiss before I went to my doom.</p>
+
+<p>"'Emma,' I exclaimed, meeting her look without any sharp sense of shame,
+'life is not as promising for me as it is for you; life is not promising
+for me at all, so I seek to end it.'</p>
+
+<p>"The horror in her eyes deepened. The grasp on my arm became like that
+of a man.</p>
+
+<p>"'You are mad,' she cried. 'You do not know what you are doing. What has
+happened to drive you to a deed like this? I&mdash;I thought&mdash;' and here she
+stammered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> and lost for the moment her self-control&mdash;'that you seemed
+very happy last night.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I was,' I cried. 'I did not know then what a blighted creature I was.
+I thought some one might be brought to love me, even with this
+frightful, hideous scar on my face. But I know now that I am mistaken;
+that no man will ever overlook this; that I must live a lonely life, a
+suffering life; and I have not the strength or the courage to do so.
+I&mdash;I might have been beautiful,' I cried, 'but&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"Her face, suddenly distorted by the keenest pain, drew my attention,
+even at that moment of immeasurable woe, and made me stop and say in
+less harsh and embittered tones:</p>
+
+<p>"'No one will miss me very much, so do not seek to stop me.'</p>
+
+<p>"Her head fell forward, her eyes sought the ground, but she did not
+loosen her hold on my arm. Instead of that, it tightened till it felt
+like a band of steel.</p>
+
+<p>"'You have left a letter there,' she murmured, allowing her eyes to
+wander fearfully towards it. 'Was it to me? to our father?'</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' I returned.</p>
+
+<p>"She shuddered, but her eyes did not leave the spot. Suddenly her lips
+gave a low cry; she had seen the word <i>Sellick</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' I answered in response to what I knew were her thoughts. 'It is
+that traitor who is killing me. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> has visited me day by day, he has
+followed me from place to place; he has sought me, smiled upon me, given
+me every token of love save that expressed in words; and now, now I hear
+him, when he does not know I am near, speak disrespectfully of my looks,
+of this scar, as no man who loves, or ever will love, could speak of any
+defect in the woman he has courted.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You did not hear aright,' came passionately from her lips. 'You are
+mistaken. Dr. Sellick could not so far forget himself.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Dr. Sellick can and did. Dr. Sellick has given me a blow for which his
+fine art of healing can find no remedy. Kiss me, Emma, kiss me, dear
+girl, and do not hold me so tight; see, we might tumble into the water
+together.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And if we did,' she gasped, 'it would be better than letting you go
+alone. No, no, Hermione, you shall never plunge into that pool while I
+live to hold you back. Listen to me, listen. Am I nothing to you? Will
+you not live for me? I have been careless, I know, happy in my own hopes
+and pleasures, and thinking too little, oh, much too little, of the
+possible griefs or disappointments of my only sister. But this shall be
+changed; I promise you shall all be changed. I will live for you
+henceforth; we will breathe, work, suffer, enjoy together. No sister
+shall be tenderer, no lover more devoted than I will be to you. If you
+do not marry, then will not I. No pleasure that is denied you shall be
+accepted by me. Only come away from this dark pool; quit casting those
+glances of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> secret longing into that gruesome water. It is too awful,
+too loathsome a place to swallow so much beauty; for you are beautiful,
+no matter what any one says; so beautiful that it is almost a mercy you
+have some defect, or we should not dare to claim you for our own, you
+are so far above what any of us could hope for or expect.'</p>
+
+<p>"But the bitterness that was in my soul could not be so easily
+exorcised.</p>
+
+<p>"'You are a good girl,' I said, 'but you cannot move me from my
+purpose.' And I tried to disengage myself from her clasp.</p>
+
+<p>"But the young face, the young form which I had hitherto associated only
+with what was gay, mirthful, and frivolous, met me with an aspect which
+impressed even me and made me feel it was no child I had to deal with
+but a woman as strong and in a state of almost as much suffering as
+myself.</p>
+
+<p>"'Hermione,' she cried, 'if you throw yourself into that pool, I shall
+follow you. I will not live ten minutes after you. Do you know why?
+Because I&mdash;<i>I</i> caused you that scar which has been the torment of your
+life. It was when we were children&mdash;babes, and I have only known it
+since last night. Auntie Lovell told me, in her sympathy for you and her
+desire to make me more sisterly. The knowledge has crushed me, Hermione;
+it has made me hate myself and love you. Nothing I can do now can ever
+atone for what I did then; though I was so young, it was anger that gave
+me strength to deal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> the blow which has left this indelible mark behind
+it. Isn't it terrible? I the one to blame and you the one to
+suffer!&mdash;But there must be no dying, Hermione, no dying, or I shall feel
+myself a murderess. And you do not want to add that horror to my
+remorse, now that I am old enough to feel remorse, and realize your
+suffering. You will be a little merciful and live for my sake if not for
+your own.'</p>
+
+<p>"She was clinging to me, her face white and drawn, upturned towards mine
+with pitiful pleading, but I had no words with which to comfort her, nor
+could I feel as yet any relenting in my fixed purpose. Seeing my unmoved
+look she burst into sobs, then she cried suddenly:</p>
+
+<p>"'I see I must prepare to die too. But not to-day, Hermione. Wait a
+month, just one month, and then if you choose to rush upon your fate, I
+will not seek to deter you, I will simply share it; but not to-day, not
+in this rush of maddened feeling. Life holds too much,&mdash;may yet give you
+too much, for any such reckless disregard of its prospects. Give it one
+chance, then, and me one chance&mdash;it is all I ask. One month of quiet
+waiting and then&mdash;decision.'</p>
+
+<p>"I knew no month would make any difference with me, but her passionate
+pleading began to work upon my feelings.</p>
+
+<p>"'It will be a wretched time for me,' said I, 'a purgatory which I shall
+be glad to escape.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But for my sake,' she murmured, 'for my sake; I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> am not ready to die
+yet, and your fate&mdash;I have said it&mdash;shall be mine.'</p>
+
+<p>"'For your sake then,' I cried, and drew back from the dangerous brink
+upon which we had both been standing. 'But do not think,' I added, as we
+paused some few feet away, 'that because I yield now, I will yield then.
+If after a month of trying to live, I find myself unable, I shall not
+consult you, Emma, as to my determination, any more than I shall expect
+you to embrace my doom because in the heat of your present terror you
+have expressed your intention of doing so.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Your fate shall be my fate, as far as I myself can compass it,' she
+reiterated. And I, angry at what I thought to be an unwarrantable
+attempt to put a check upon me, cried out in as bitter a tone as I had
+ever used:</p>
+
+<p>"'So be it,' and turned myself towards home."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+<a name="xxi" id="xxi"></a><span class="sub3">XXI.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">IN THE LABORATORY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">But</span> Emma, with a careful remembrance of what was due to my better
+nature, stopped to pick up the letter I had left lying under a stone,
+and joining me, placed it in my hand, by which it was soon crumpled up,
+torn, and scattered to the wind. As the last bits blew by us, we both
+sighed and the next minute walked rapidly towards home.</p>
+
+<p>"You will say that all this was experience enough for one day, but fate
+sometimes crowds us with emotions and eventful moments. As we entered
+the house, I saw auntie waiting for us at the top of the first stairs;
+and when she beckoned to Emma only, I was glad&mdash;if I could be glad of
+anything&mdash;that I was to be left for a few minutes to myself. Turning
+towards a little crooked staircase which leads to that part of the house
+containing my own room and my father's laboratory, I went wearily up,
+feeling as if each step I took dragged a whole weight of woe behind it.</p>
+
+<p>"I was going to my own room, but as I passed the open laboratory door, I
+perceived that the place was empty,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> and the fancy took me, I know not
+why, to go in. I had never liked the room, it was so unnaturally long,
+so unnaturally dismal, and so connected with the pursuits I had come to
+detest. Now it had an added horror for me. Here Dr. Sellick had been
+accustomed to come, and here was the very chair in which he had sat, and
+the table at which he had worked. Why, then, with all this old and new
+shrinking upon me did I persistently cross the threshold and darken my
+already clouded spirit with the torturing suggestions I found there? I
+do not know. Perhaps my evil spirit lured me on; perhaps&mdash;I am beginning
+to believe in a Providence now&mdash;God had some good purpose in leading me
+to fresh revelations, though up to this time they have seemed to cause
+me nothing but agony and shame.</p>
+
+<p>"No one was in the room, I say, and I went straight to its middle
+window. Here my father's desk stood, for he used the room for nearly
+every purpose of his life. I did not observe the desk; I did not observe
+anything till I turned to leave; then I caught sight of a letter lying
+on the desk, and stopped as if I had been clutched by an iron hand, for
+it was an open letter, and the signature at the bottom of the sheet was
+that of Edgar Sellick.</p>
+
+<p>"'Can I never escape from that man?' thought I, and turned passionately
+away. But next minute I found myself bending over it, devouring it first
+with my eyes, and then taking it to my heart, for it was an expression
+of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> love for the daughter of the man to whom it was addressed, and that
+man was my father.</p>
+
+<p>"This language as I now know referred to Emma, and she was under no
+error in regard to it, nor was my father nor my aunt. But I thought it
+referred to me, and as I read on and came upon the sentence in which he
+asked, as I supposed, for my hand and the privilege of offering himself
+to me at the coming ball, I experienced such a revulsion of feeling that
+I lost all memory of the words I had overheard him speak, or attributed
+them to some misunderstanding on my part, which a word or look from him
+could easily explain.</p>
+
+<p>"Life bloomed for me again, and I was happy, madly happy for a few short
+moments. Even the horrible old room I was in seemed cheerful, and I was
+just acknowledging to myself that I should have made a great mistake if
+I had carried out my wicked impulse toward self-destruction, when my
+father came in. He shrank back when he saw me; but I thought nothing of
+that; I did not even wonder why Emma was closeted with aunt. I only
+thought of the coming ball, and the necessity of preparing myself for it
+right royally.</p>
+
+<p>"I had come from the desk, and was crossing the floor to go out. My
+happiness made me turn.</p>
+
+<p>"'Father,' said I, taking what I thought to be an arch advantage of the
+situation; 'may I not have a new dress for the ball?'</p>
+
+<p>"He paused, cast a glance at his desk, and then another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> at me. He had
+been, though I did not know it, in conversation with Emma and my aunt,
+and was more alive to the matters of the hour than usual. It was
+therefore with some display of severity that he confronted me and said:</p>
+
+<p>"'You are not going to the ball, Hermione.'</p>
+
+<p>"Struck as by a blow, the more severely that it was wholly unexpected, I
+gasped:</p>
+
+<p>"'Not going to the ball when you know what depends upon it? Do you not
+like Dr. Sellick, father?'</p>
+
+<p>"He mumbled something between his lips, and advancing to the desk, took
+up the letter which he thus knew I had read, and ostentatiously folded
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"'I like Dr. Sellick well enough,' was his reply, 'but I do not approve
+of balls, and desire you to keep away from them.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But you said we might go,' I persisted, suspecting nothing, seeing
+nothing in this but a parent's unreasonable and arbitrary display of
+power. 'Why have you changed your mind? Is it because Dr. Sellick has
+fixed upon that time for making me the offer of his hand?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Perhaps,' his dry lips said.</p>
+
+<p>"Angry as I had never been in all my life, I tried to speak, and could
+not. Had I escaped suicide to have my hopes flung in this wanton way
+again to the ground, and for no reason that I or any one else could
+see?'</p>
+
+<p>"'But you acknowledge,' I managed at last to stammer, 'that you like
+him.'</p>
+
+<p>"'That is not saying I want him for a son-in-law.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+"'Whom do you want?' I cried. 'Is there any one else in town superior to
+him in wit or breeding? If he loves me&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"My father's lip curled.</p>
+
+<p>"'He says he does,' I flashed out fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>"'You should not have read my letters,' was all my father replied.</p>
+
+<p>"I was baffled, exasperated, at my wits' end; all the more that I saw
+his eye roaming impatiently towards the pneumatic trough where some
+hydrogen gas was collecting for use.</p>
+
+<p>"'Father, father,' I cried, 'be frank to me. What are your objections to
+Dr. Sellick? He is your friend; he works with you; he is promising in
+his profession; he has every qualification but that of wealth&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'That is enough,' broke in my father.</p>
+
+<p>"I looked at him in dismay and shrank back. How could I know he was
+honestly trying to save me from a grief and shame they all thought me
+unequal to meeting. I saw nothing but his cold smile, heard nothing but
+his harsh words.</p>
+
+<p>"'You are cruel; you are heartless,' burst from me in a rage. 'You never
+have shown the least signs of a mercenary spirit before, and now you
+make Dr. Sellick's lack of money an excuse for breaking my heart.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Hermione,' my father slowly rejoined, 'you have a frightful temper.
+You had better keep down the exhibitions of it when you are in this
+room.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+"'This room!' I repeated, almost beside myself. 'This grave rather of
+every gentle feeling and tender thought which a father should have
+towards a most unfortunate child. If you loved me but half as well as
+you love these old jars&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"But here his face, usually mild in its abstraction, turned so pale and
+hard that I was frightened at what I had said.</p>
+
+<p>"'Hermione,' he cried, 'there is no use trying to show you any
+consideration. Know the truth then; know that&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"Why did he not go on? Why was he not allowed to tell me what I may have
+been but little fitted to hear, but which if I had heard it at that time
+would have saved me from many grave and fatal mistakes. I think he would
+have spoken; I think he meant to tell me that Dr. Sellick's offer was
+for Emma, and not for me, but Emma herself appeared just then at the
+door, and though I did not detect the gesture she made, I gather that it
+was one of entreaty from the way he paused and bit his lip.</p>
+
+<p>"'It is useless to talk,' he exclaimed. 'I have said that you are to
+stay home from the ball. I also say that you are not to accept or refuse
+Dr. Sellick's addresses. I will answer his letter, and it will not be
+one of acceptance.'</p>
+
+<p>"Why did I not yield to his will and say nothing? When I saw how
+everything was against me, why did I not succumb to circumstances, and
+cease to maintain a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> struggle I knew then to be useless? Because it was
+not in my nature to do so; because Providence had given me an
+indomitable will which had never been roused into its utmost action till
+now. Drawing myself up till I felt that I was taller than he, I advanced
+with all the fury of suppressed rage, and quietly said the fatal words
+which, once uttered, I never knew how to recall:</p>
+
+<p>"'If you play the tyrant, I will not play the part of submissive slave.
+Keep me here if you will; restrain me from going where my fancy and my
+desires lead, and I will obey you. But, father, if you do this, if you
+do not allow me to go to the ball, meet Dr. Sellick, and accept his
+offer, then mark me, I will never go out of this house again. Where you
+keep me I will stay till I am carried out a corpse, and no one and
+nothing shall ever make me change my mind.'</p>
+
+<p>"He stared, laughed, then walked away to his pneumatic trough. 'Suit
+yourself about that,' said he, 'I have nothing to do with your whims.'
+Probably he thought I was raving and would forget my words before the
+day was out.</p>
+
+<p>"But there was another person present who knew me better, and I only
+realized what I had done when I beheld Emma's slight body lying
+insensible at my feet."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+<a name="xxii" id="xxii"></a><span class="sub3">XXII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">STEEL MEETS STEEL.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Up</span> to this point Frank had read with an absorption which precluded the
+receiving of all outward impressions. But the secret reached, he drew a
+long breath and became suddenly conscious of a lugubrious sound breaking
+in upon the silence with a gloomy iteration which was anything but
+cheering.</p>
+
+<p>The fog-horn was blowing out on Dog Island.</p>
+
+<p>"I could have done without that accompaniment," thought he, glancing at
+the sheets still before him. "It gives me a sense of doom."</p>
+
+<p>But the fog was thick on the coast and the horn kept on blowing.</p>
+
+<p>Frank took up the remaining sheets.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>"Life for me was now at an end indeed, and not for me only, but for
+Emma. I had not meant to involve her in my fate. I had forgotten her
+promise, <i>forgotten</i>. But when I saw her lying there I remembered, and a
+sharp pang pierced me for all my devouring rage. But I did not recall my
+words, I could not. I had uttered them with a full sense of what they
+meant to me, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> scorn with which they were received only deepened
+my purpose to keep the threat I had made. Can you understand such a
+disposition, and can you continue to love the possessor of it?</p>
+
+<p>"My father, who was shocked at Emma's fall, knowing better than I did
+perhaps the real misery which lay behind it, cast me a look which did
+not tend to soften my obduracy, and advanced to pick her up. When he had
+carried her to her own room, I went proudly to mine, and such was the
+depth of my anger and the obstinate nature of my will that I really felt
+better able to face the future now that I had put myself into a position
+requiring pride and purpose to sustain it. But I did feel some relenting
+when I next saw Emma&mdash;such a change was visible in her manner. Meekness
+had taken the place of the merriment which once made the house to ring,
+and the eye which once sparkled now showed sadness and concern. I did
+not, however suspect she had given up anything but freedom, and though
+this was much, as I very soon began to find, I was not yet by any means
+so affected by her devotion, that I could do more than beg her to
+reconsider her own determination and break a promise from which I would
+be only too happy to release her.</p>
+
+<p>"But the answer with which she always met my remonstrances was, 'Your
+fate shall be my fate. When it becomes unbearable to us both you will
+release me by releasing yourself.' Which answer always hardened me
+again, for I did not wish to be forced to think that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> breaking up of
+our seclusion rested with me, or that anything but a relenting on my
+father's part could make any change in my conduct.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile that father maintained towards me an air of the utmost
+indifference. He worked at his experiments as usual, came and went
+through the sombre house, which was unrelieved now by Emma's once bright
+sallies and irrepressible laughter, and made no sign that he saw any
+difference in it or us. Aunt Lovell alone showed sympathy, and when she
+saw that sympathy accomplished nothing, tried first persuasion and then
+argument.</p>
+
+<p>"But she had iron and steel to deal with and she soon ceased her gentle
+efforts, and as the time of her visit was drawing to a close, returned
+again to those gentle expressions of silent sympathy more natural to her
+nature; and so the first week passed.</p>
+
+<p>"We had determined, Emma and I, that no one beside our four selves
+should ever know the secret of our strange behavior. Neighbors might
+guess, gossips might discuss it, but no one should ever know why we no
+longer showed ourselves in the street, went to any of the social
+gatherings of the place, or attended the church from which we had never
+before been absent. When, therefore, the ball came off and we were not
+seen there, many were the questions asked, and many were the surmises
+uttered, but we did not betray our secret, nor was it for some time
+after this that the people about us awoke to the fact that we no longer
+left our home.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+"What happened when this fact was fully realized, I will not pause to
+relate, for matters of a much more serious nature press upon me and I
+must now speak of the bitter and terrible struggle which gradually awoke
+between my father and myself. He had as I have already related, shown
+nothing at first but indifference, but after the first week had passed
+he suddenly seemed to realize that I meant what I said. The result was a
+conflict between us from the effects of which I am still suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"The first intimation I received of his determination to make me break
+my word came on a Sunday morning. He had been in his room dressing for
+church, and when he came out he rapped at my door and asked if I were
+ready to go with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally I flung wide the door and let him see my wrathful figure in
+its morning dress.</p>
+
+<p>"'Can you ask,' I cried, 'when you yourself have made it impossible for
+me to enjoy anything outside of this house, even the breath of fresh air
+to which all are entitled?'</p>
+
+<p>"He looked as if he would like to strike me, but he did not&mdash;only
+smiled. If I could have known all that lay under that smile, or been
+able to fathom from what I knew of my own stubborn nature, the terrible
+depths which its sarcasm barely suggested!</p>
+
+<p>"'You would be a fool if you were not so wicked,' was all he said, and
+shuffled away to my sister's door.</p>
+
+<p>"In a few minutes he came back.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+"'Hermione,' he cried, 'put on your hat and come directly with me to
+church.'</p>
+
+<p>"I simply looked at him.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you hear?' he exclaimed, stepping into the room and shutting the
+door after him. 'I have had enough of this nonsense, and to-day you go
+out with me to church or you never shall call me father again.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Have you been a father to me?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"He shook and quivered and was a picture of rage. I remembered as I
+looked at him, thinking, 'Behold the source of my own temper,' but I
+said nothing, and was in no other way affected by what I saw.</p>
+
+<p>"'I have been such a father to you as your folly and blindness
+deserved,' he exclaimed. 'Should I continue to treat you according to
+your deserts, I would tell you what would lay you in shame at my feet.
+But I have promised to be silent, and silent will I be, not out of
+consideration for you, but because your punishment will some day be the
+greater. Will you give up this whim and go with me, and so let your
+sister go also, or will you not?'</p>
+
+<p>"'I will not.'</p>
+
+<p>"He showed a sudden change of manner. 'I will ask you the same question
+next Sunday,' said he, and left my presence with his old air of
+indifference and absorption. No subject disconnected with his work could
+rouse more than a temporary passion in him.</p>
+
+<p>"He kept his word. Every Sunday morning he came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> on the same errand to
+my door, and every Sunday he went forth alone. During the week days he
+did not trouble me. Indeed, I do not know as he thought of me then, or
+even of Emma, who had always been dearer to him than I. He was engaged
+on some new experiment, some vital discovery that filled him with
+enthusiasm and made every moment passed out of his laboratory a trial
+and a loss to him. He ate that he might work, he slept that he might
+gather new strength and inspiration for the next day. If visitors came
+he refused to see them; the one visitor who could have assisted him at
+the retort and crucible had been denied the door, and any other was a
+hindrance. Our troubles, our cares, our schemes, or our attempts to
+supply the table and dress ourselves upon the few and fewer dollars he
+now allowed us, sank into insignificance before the one idea with which
+he was engrossed. I do not think he even knew when we ceased having meat
+for dinner. That Emma was growing pale and I desperate did not attract
+his attention as much as a speck of dust upon a favorite jar or a crack
+in one of his miserable tubes.</p>
+
+<p>"That this deep absorption of his was real and not assumed was made
+evident to me the first Sunday morning he forgot to come to my door. It
+was a relief not to have to go through the usual formula, but it alarmed
+me too. I was afraid I was to be allowed to go my own way unhindered,
+and I was beginning to feel a softness towards Emma and a longing for
+the life of the world, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> made me anxious for some excuse to break a
+resolution which was entailing upon me so much more suffering than I had
+anticipated. Indeed, I think if my father had persisted in his practice
+and come but two or three Sunday mornings more to my door, that my pride
+would have yielded at last, and my feet in spite of me have followed him
+out of a house that, since it had become my prison, had become more than
+ever hateful to me. But he stopped just as a crisis was taking place in
+my feelings, and my heart hardened again. Before it could experience
+again the softening effects of Emma's uncomplaining presence the news
+came that Dr. Sellick had left the town, and my motive for quitting the
+house was taken from me. Henceforth I felt no more life or hope or
+ambition than if I had been an automaton.</p>
+
+<p>"This mood received one day a startling interruption. As I was sitting
+in my room with a book in my hand I felt too listless to read, the door
+opened, and my father stood before me. As it was weeks since he had
+appeared on a Sunday morning and months since he had showed himself
+there on a week day, I was startled, especially as his expression was
+more eager and impatient than I had ever seen it except when he was
+leaning over his laboratory table. Was his heart touched at last? Had he
+good news for me, or was he going to show his fatherhood once more by
+proffering me an invitation to go out with him in a way which my pride
+would allow me to accept? I rose in a state of trembling agitation, and
+made up my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> mind that if he spoke kindly I would break the hideous bonds
+which held me and follow him quickly into the street.</p>
+
+<p>"But the words which fell from his lips drove every tender impulse back
+into my heart.</p>
+
+<p>"'Have you any jewels, Hermione? I think I gave your mother some pearls
+when we were married. Have you them? I want them if you have.'</p>
+
+<p>"The revulsion of feeling was too keen. Quivering with disappointment, I
+cried out, bitterly:</p>
+
+<p>"'What to do? To give us bread? We have not had any too much of it
+lately.'</p>
+
+<p>"He stared, but did not seem to take in my words.</p>
+
+<p>"'Fetch the pearls,' he cried; 'I cannot afford to waste time like this;
+my experiments will suffer.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And have you no eye, no heart,' I asked, 'for the sufferings of your
+daughters? With no motive but an arbitrary love of power, you robbed me
+of my happiness. Now you want my jewels; the one treasure I have left
+either in the way of value, or as a remembrance of the mother who loved
+me.'</p>
+
+<p>"Of all this he heard but one word.</p>
+
+<p>"'Are they valuable?' he asked. 'I had hoped so, but I did not know. Get
+them, child, get them. The discovery upon which my fame may rest will
+yet be made.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Father, father, you want to sell them,' I screamed. 'My mother's
+jewels; my dead mother's jewels!'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+"He looked at me; this protest had succeeded in entering his ears, and
+his eye, which had been simply eager, became all at once dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>"'I do not care whose they were,' he hissed, 'so long as they are now
+mine. It is money I want, and money I will have, and if they will get it
+for me you had better be thankful. Otherwise I shall have to find some
+other way to raise it.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was cowed; he did not say what other way, but I knew by his look I
+had better not drive him into it, so I went to the place where I kept
+these sacred relics, and taking them out, laid them in his trembling,
+outstretched hand.</p>
+
+<p>"'Are these all?' he asked. And I wondered, for he had never shown the
+least shrewdness in any matter connected with money before.</p>
+
+<p>"'All but a trivial little locket which Emma wears,' said I.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is it worth much?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Scarcely five dollars,' I returned.</p>
+
+<p>"'Five dollars would buy the bit of platinum I want,' he muttered. But
+he did not ask for the locket, for I saw it on Emma's neck the next day.</p>
+
+<p>"This was the beginning of a fresh struggle. My father begrudged us
+everything: the food we ate; the plain, almost homely, clothes we wore.
+He himself wellnigh starved his own body, and when in the midst of an
+experiment, his most valuable retort broke in his hand, you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> could have
+heard his shriek of dismay all over the house. The following Sunday he
+did not go to church; he no longer had a coat to wear; he had sold his
+only broadcloth suit to a wandering pedlar.</p>
+
+<p>"Our next shock was the dismissal of the man who had always kept our
+garden in order. Doris would have been sent away also, but that father
+knew this would mean a disorder in the household which might entail
+interruption in his labors. He did not dare to leave himself to the
+tender mercies of his daughters. But her pay was stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile his discovery delayed. It was money that he needed, he said,
+more money, much more money. He began to sell his books. In the midst of
+this a stranger came to visit him, and now the real story of my misery
+begins."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+<a name="xxiii" id="xxiii"></a><span class="sub3">XXIII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">A GROWING HORROR.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">There</span> are some men who fill you from the beginning with a feeling of
+revulsion. Such a one was Antony Harding. When he came into the parlor
+where I sat, I felt it difficult to advance and greet him with the
+necessary formalities, so forcibly did I shrink from his glance, his
+smile, his bow of easy assurance. Not that he was ugly of feature, or
+possessed of any very distinguishing marks in face or form to render him
+personally repulsive. He was what some might have called good-looking,
+and many others a gentlemanly-appearing man. But to me he was simply
+revolting, and I could not then or now tell why, for, as far as I know,
+he has never done anything incompatible with his standing as a gentleman
+and a man of family and wealth.</p>
+
+<p>"He had some claim upon my father, and desired very much to see him. I,
+who could not dispute that claim, was going to call my father, when Mr.
+Harding stopped me, thinking, I really believe, that he would not see me
+again, and I was forced, greatly against my will, to stand and answer
+some half-dozen innocent enough questions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> while his eyes roamed over
+my features and took in the scar I turned towards him as a sort of
+defence. Then he let me go, but not before I saw in him the beginning of
+that fever which made me for a while hate the very name of love.</p>
+
+<p>"With a sense of disgust quite new to me, I rushed from the room to the
+laboratory. The name by which he had introduced himself was a strange
+one to me, and I had no idea my father would see him. But as soon as I
+uttered the word Harding, the impatience with which he always met any
+interruption gave way to a sudden and irresistible joy, and, jumping up
+from his seat, he cried:</p>
+
+<p>"'Show him up! show him up. He is a rich man and interested in
+chemistry. He cannot but foresee the fame which awaits the man who
+brings to light the discovery I am seeking.'</p>
+
+<p>"'He says he has some claim on you,' I murmured, anything but pleased at
+this prospect of seeing a man whose presence I so disliked, inveigled
+into matters which might demand his reappearance in the house.</p>
+
+<p>"'Claims? claims? Perhaps he has; I cannot remember. But send him up; I
+shall soon make him forget any claims he may have.'</p>
+
+<p>"I did as my father bade me. I sent the smiling, dapper, disagreeably
+attentive man to the laboratory, and when this was done, went to the
+window and threw it up with some vague idea of cleansing the room from
+an influence which stifled me.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+"You may imagine then with what a sense of apprehension I observed that
+my father fairly glowed with delight when he came to the supper-table.
+From being the half-sullen, half-oblivious companion who had lately
+chilled our board and made it the scene of anything but cheer or
+comfort, he had brightened at once into a garrulous old man, ready with
+jests and full of condescending speeches in regard to his great
+experiments. Emma, to whom I had said nothing, looked her innocent
+pleasure at this, and both of us started in amazement when he suddenly
+turned towards me, and surveyed me with something like interest and
+pleasurable curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why do you look at me like that?' I could not help saying. 'I should
+think you had never seen me before, father.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Perhaps I never have,' he laughed. Then quite seriously: 'I was
+looking to see if you were as handsome as Mr. Harding said you were. He
+told me he had never seen so beautiful a woman in his life.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was shocked; more than that, I was terrified; I half-rose from the
+table, and forgetting everything else which made my life a burden to me,
+I had some wild idea of rushing from the house, from the town, anywhere
+to escape the purpose I perceived forming itself in my father's mind.</p>
+
+<p>"'Father,' I cried, with a trembling in my tones that was not common to
+them, even in the moments of my greatest displeasure; 'I hate that man,
+and abominate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> the very idea of his presuming to admire me. Do not ever
+mention him to me again. It makes my very soul turn sick.'</p>
+
+<p>"It was an unwise speech; it was the unwisest speech I could have made.
+I felt this to be so the moment I had spoken, and stole a look of secret
+dismay at Emma, who sat quite still and helpless, gazing, in silent
+consternation, from my father to myself.</p>
+
+<p>"'You will hate no one who can help me perfect my experiments,' he
+retorted. 'If I command you to do so, you must even love him, though we
+have not got so far as that yet.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I will never love anybody again,' I answered bitterly. 'And I would
+not love this man if your discoveries and my own life even hung upon
+it.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You would not?' He was livid now. 'Well, we shall see. He is coming
+here to dinner to-morrow, and if you dare to show him anything but the
+respect due to an honored guest you will live to rue it as you have
+never rued anything yet.'</p>
+
+<p>"Threats that are idle on some lips are anything but idle on ours, as I
+think you have already begun to perceive. I therefore turned pale and
+said no more, but all night the tormenting terror was upon me, and when
+the next day came I was but little fitted to sustain the reputation for
+beauty which I had so unfortunately earned from a distasteful man's lips
+the day before.</p>
+
+<p>"But Antony Harding was not one to easily change his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> first impressions.
+He had made up his mind that I was beautiful, and he kept to that
+opinion to the last. I had dressed myself in my most expensive but least
+becoming gown, and I wore my hair in a way to shock the taste of most
+men. But I saw from the first moment that his eyes fell on my face that
+this made no difference to him, and that I must take other means to
+disillusionize him. So then I resorted to a display of stupidity. I did
+not talk, and looked, if I looked at all, as if I did not understand.
+But he had seen glimpses of brightness in me the day before, and this
+ruse succeeded no better than the other. He even acted as if he admired
+me more as a breathing, sullen image than as a living, combative woman.</p>
+
+<p>"My father, who watched us as he never had watched anything before but
+rising bubbles of gas or accumulating crystals, did not show the
+displeasure I feared, possibly because he saw that I was failing in all
+my endeavors; and when the meal over, he led the way to the parlor, he
+even smiled upon me in a not altogether unfriendly way. I felt a sinking
+of the heart when I saw that smile. Better to me were his frowns, for
+that smile told me that, love or no love, liking or no liking, I was to
+be made the bait to win this man's money for the uses of chemistry.</p>
+
+<p>"Walking steadfastly into the parlor, I met the stranger's admiring eye.</p>
+
+<p>"'You would not think,' I remarked, 'that my life at present was
+enclosed within these four walls.'</p>
+
+<p>"It was the first sentence I had voluntarily addressed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> him, and it must
+have struck him as a very peculiar one.</p>
+
+<p>"'I do not understand what you mean,' he returned, with that unctuous
+smile which to me was so detestable. 'Something interesting, I have no
+doubt.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Very interesting,' I dryly rejoined. 'I have taken a vow never to
+leave this house, and I mean to keep it.'</p>
+
+<p>"He stared at me now in some apprehension, and my heart gave a bound of
+delight. I had frightened him. He thought I was demented.</p>
+
+<p>"My father, seeing his look of astonishment, but not knowing what I had
+said, here advanced and unconsciously made matters worse by remarking,
+with an effort at jocularity:</p>
+
+<p>"'Don't mind what Hermione says; for a smart girl and a good one, she
+sometimes talks very peculiarly.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I should think so,' my companion's manner seemed to assert, but he
+gave a sudden laugh, and made some observation which I scarcely heard in
+my fierce determination to end this matter at once.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do you not think,' I persisted, 'that a woman who has doomed herself
+to perpetual seclusion has a right to be peculiar?'</p>
+
+<p>"'A woman of such beauty possesses most any rights she chooses to
+assert,' was his somewhat lame reply. He had evidently received a shock,
+and was greatly embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"'I laughed low to myself, but my father, comprehending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> as in a flash
+what I was attempting, turned livid and made me a threatening gesture.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I fear,' said he, 'that you will have to excuse my daughter for
+to-night. The misfortune which has befallen her has soured her temper,
+and this is not one of her amiable days.'</p>
+
+<p>"I made a curtsey deep as my disdain. 'I leave you to the enjoyment of
+your criticisms,' I exclaimed, and fled from the room in a flutter of
+mingled satisfaction and fear.</p>
+
+<p>"For though I had saved myself from any possible persecution on the part
+of Mr. Harding, I had done it at the cost of any possible reconciliation
+between my father and myself. And I was not yet so hardened that I could
+contemplate years of such life as I was then living without a pang of
+dread. Alas! if I had known what I was indeed preparing for myself, and
+how much worse a future dwelt in his mind than any I had contemplated!</p>
+
+<p>"Emma, who had been a silent and unobtrusive witness to what had
+occurred, soon followed me to my room.</p>
+
+<p>"'What have you done?' she asked. 'Why speak so to a stranger?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Father wants me to like him; father wants me to accept his attentions,
+and I detest him. I abhor his very presence in the house.'</p>
+
+<p>"'But&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'I know he has only been here but twice; but that is enough, Emma; he
+shall not come here again with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> any idea that he will receive the least
+welcome from me.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Is he a person known to father? Is he&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'Rich? Oh, yes; he is rich. That is why father thinks him an eligible
+son-in-law. His thousands would raise the threatened discovery into a
+fact.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I see. I pity you, Hermione. It is hard to disappoint a father in his
+dearest hopes.'</p>
+
+<p>"I stared at her in sudden fury.</p>
+
+<p>"'Is that what you are thinking of?' I demanded, with reckless
+impetuosity. 'After all the cruel disappointment he has inflicted upon
+me&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"But Emma had slipped from the room. She had no words now with which to
+meet my gusts of temper.</p>
+
+<p>"A visit from my father came next. Though strong in my resolve not to be
+shaken, I secretly quaked at the cold, cruel determination in his face.
+A man after all is so much more unrelenting than a woman.</p>
+
+<p>"'Hermione,' he cried, 'you have disobeyed me. You have insulted my
+guest, and you have shaken the hopes which I thought I had a right to
+form, being your father and the author of your being. I said if you did
+this you should suffer, but I mean to give you one more chance. Mr.
+Harding was startled rather than alienated. If you show yourself in
+future the amiable and sensible woman which you can be, he will forget
+this foolish ebullition and make you the offer his passion inspires.
+This would mean worldly prosperity, social consideration, and
+everything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> else which a reasonable woman, even if she has been
+disappointed in love, could require. While for me&mdash;you cannot know what
+it would be for me, for you have no capability for appreciating the
+noble study to which I am devoted.'</p>
+
+<p>"'No,' I said, hard and cold as adamant, 'I have no appreciation for a
+study which, like another Moloch, demands, not only the sacrifice of the
+self-respect, but even the lives of your unhappy children.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You rave,' was his harsh reply. 'I offer you all the pleasures of
+life, and you call it immolation. Is not Mr. Harding as much of a
+gentleman as Dr. Sellick? Do I ask you to accept the attentions of a
+boor or a scape-grace? He is called a very honorable man by those who
+know him, and if you were ten times handsomer than you are, ten times
+more amiable, and had no defect calculated to diminish the regard of
+most men, you would still be scarcely worthy to bear the name of so
+wealthy, honorable, and highly esteemed a young man.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Father, father!' I exclaimed, scarcely able to bear from him this
+allusion to my misfortune.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why he has taken such a sudden, and, if I may say it, violent fancy to
+you, I find it hard to understand myself. But he has done this, and he
+has not scrupled to tell me so, and to intimate that he would like the
+opportunity of cultivating your good graces. Will you, then&mdash;I ask it
+for the last time&mdash;extend him a welcome, or must I see my hopes vanish,
+and with them a life too feeble<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> to survive the disappointment which
+their loss must occasion.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I cannot give any sort of welcome to this man,' I returned. 'If I did,
+I would be doing him a wrong, as well as you and myself. I dislike him,
+father, more than I can make you understand. His presence is worse than
+death to me; I would rather go to my coffin than to his arms. But if I
+liked him, if he were the beau-ideal of my dreams, could I break the vow
+I made one day in your presence? This man is not Dr. Sellick; do not
+then seek to make me forget the oath of isolation I have taken.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Fool! fool!' was my father's furious retort. 'I know he is not Dr.
+Sellick. If he were I should not have his cause to plead to <i>you</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>"How nearly his secret came out in his rage. 'If I could make you
+understand; make you see&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'You make me see that I am giving you a great and bitter
+disappointment,' I broke in. 'But it only equalizes matters; you have
+given me one.'</p>
+
+<p>"He bounded to my side; he seized my arm and shook it.</p>
+
+<p>"'Drop that foolish talk,' he cried. 'I will hear no more of it, nor of
+your staying in the house on that account or any other. You will go out
+to-morrow. You will go out with Mr. Harding. You will&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'Father,' I put in, chill as ice, 'do you expect to carry me out in
+your arms?'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+"He fell back; he was a small man, my father, and I, as you know, am
+large for a woman.</p>
+
+<p>"'You vixen!' he muttered, 'curses on the day when you were born!'</p>
+
+<p>"'That curse has been already pronounced,' I muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"He stood still, he made no answer, he seemed to be gathering himself
+together for a final appeal. Had he looked at me a little longer; had he
+shown any sympathy for my position, any appreciation for my wrongs, or
+any compunction for the share he had taken in them, I might have shown
+myself to have possessed some womanly softness and latent gentleness.
+But instead of that he took on in those few frightful moments such a
+look of cold, calculating hate that I was at once steeled and appalled.
+I hardly knew what he said when he cried at last:</p>
+
+<p>"'Once! twice! thrice! Will you do what I desire, Hermione?'</p>
+
+<p>"I only knew he had asked something I could not grant, so I answered,
+with what calmness I could, in the old formula, now for some months gone
+into disuse, 'I will not,' and sank, weary with my own emotions, into a
+chair.</p>
+
+<p>"He gave me one look&mdash;I shall never forget it,&mdash;and threw up his arms
+with what sounded like an imprecation.</p>
+
+<p>"'Then your sin be upon your own head!' he cried, and without another
+word left the room.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+"I was frightened; never had I seen such an expression on mortal face
+before. And this was my father; the man who had courted my mother; who
+had put the ring upon her finger at the altar; who had sat at her dying
+bed and smiled as she whispered: 'For a busy man, you have always been a
+good husband to me.' Was this or that the real man as he was? Had these
+depths been always hidden within him, or had I created them there by my
+hardness and disobedience? I will never know."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+<a name="xxiv" id="xxiv"></a><span class="sub3">XXIV.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">FATHER AND CHILD.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">The</span> night which followed this day was a sleepless one for me. Yet how I
+dreaded the morning! How I shrank from the first sight of my father's
+face! Had Auntie Lovell been with us I should have prevailed upon her to
+have gone to him and tried to smooth the way to some sort of
+reconciliation between us, but she was in Chicago, and I was not yet
+upon such terms with Emma that I could bear to make of her a go-between.
+I preferred to meet him without apology, and by dutifulness in all other
+respects make him forget in time my failure to oblige him in one. <i>I had
+made up my mind to go out of the house that day, though not with Mr.
+Harding.</i></p>
+
+<p>"But sometimes it seems as if Providence stepped in our way when we try
+to recover from any false position into which we have been betrayed by
+the heat and stress of our own passions. When I tried to rise I found
+myself ill, and for several days after that I knew little and cared less
+where I was, or what my future was like to be. When I was well enough to
+get up and go about my duties<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> again, I found the house and my father in
+very much the same condition as they were before the fatal appearance of
+Mr. Harding. No look from his eye revealed that any great change had
+taken place in his attitude towards me, and after learning that Mr.
+Harding had come once since my illness, been closeted with my father for
+some time, and had then gone away with a rather formal and hard good-by
+to the anxious Emma, I began to feel that my fears had been part of the
+delirium of the fever which had afterwards set in, and that I was
+alarming myself and softening my heart more than was necessary.</p>
+
+<p>"The consequence was that I did not go out that afternoon, nor the next
+morning, nor for a week after, though I was always saying to myself that
+I would surprise them yet by a sudden dash out of the house when they
+showed, or rather my father showed, any such relenting in his studied
+attitude of indifference as would make such an action on the part of one
+constituted like myself, possible.</p>
+
+<p>"But he was thinking of anything else but relenting, and even I began to
+see in a few days that something portentous lay behind the apparent
+apathy of his manner. He worked as he had of old, or rather he shut
+himself up in his laboratory from morning until night, but when he did
+appear, there was something new in his manner that deeply troubled me. I
+began to shrink at the sound of his step, and more than once went
+without a meal rather than meet the cold glance of his eye.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
+"Emma, who seemed to have little idea of what I suffered and of what I
+dreaded (what did I dread? I hardly knew) used to talk to me sometimes
+of our father's failing health; but I either hushed her or sat like a
+stone, I was in such a state of shuddering horror. I remember one day as
+I stole past the laboratory door, I beheld her with her arms round his
+neck, and the sight filled me with tumult, but whether it was one of
+longing or repugnance, or a mixture of both, I can hardly tell. But I
+know it was with difficulty I repressed a cry of grief, and that when I
+found myself alone my limbs were shaking under me like those of one
+stricken with ague. At last there came a day when father was no longer
+to be seen at the table. He ordered his meals brought to the laboratory,
+but denied being sick. I stared at Emma, who delivered this message, and
+asked her what she thought of it.</p>
+
+<p>"'That he <i>is</i> ill,' she declared.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>"Two weeks later my father called me into his presence. I went in fear
+and trembling. He was standing by his desk in the laboratory, and I
+could not repress a start of surprise when I saw the change which had
+taken place in him. But I said nothing, only stood near the doorway and
+waited for what he had to say.</p>
+
+<p>"'Look at me,' he commanded. 'I am standing to-day; to-morrow I shall be
+sitting. I wish you to watch your work; now go.'</p>
+
+<p>"I turned, so shaken by his look and terrible wanness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> that I could
+hardly stand. But at the door I paused and cried in irrepressible
+terror:</p>
+
+<p>"'You are ill; let me send for a doctor. I cannot see you dying thus
+before my eyes.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You cannot?' With what a grim chuckle he uttered the words. 'We will
+see what you can bear.' Then as my eyes opened in terror, and I seemed
+about to flee, he cried, 'No doctor, do you hear? I will see none. And
+mark me, no talking about what goes on in this room, if you do not wish
+my curse.'</p>
+
+<p>"Aghast, I rushed from that unhallowed door. What did his words mean?
+What was his purpose? Upon what precipice of horror was I stumbling?</p>
+
+<p>"The next day he summoned me again. I felt too weak to go, but I dared
+not disobey. I opened his door with a shaking hand, and found him
+sitting, as he had promised, in an old arm-chair that had been his
+mother's.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do I look any better?' he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I shook my head. He was evidently much worse.</p>
+
+<p>"'The poison of disobedience works slowly, but it works sure,' he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"I threw up my arms with a shriek.</p>
+
+<p>"He seemed to love the sound.</p>
+
+<p>"'You do not enjoy the fruits of your actions,' said he. 'You love your
+old father so dearly.'</p>
+
+<p>"I held out my hands; I entreated; I implored.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do not&mdash;do not look on me like this. Some dreadful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> thought is in your
+mind&mdash;some dreadful revenge. Do not cherish it; do not make my already
+ruined life a worse torture to me. Let me have help, let me send for a
+doctor&mdash;&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"But his sternly lifted finger was already pointing at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"'You have stayed too long,' he muttered. 'Next time you will barely
+look in, and leave without a word.'</p>
+
+<p>"I crouched, he cowed me so, and then fled, this time to find Emma,
+Doris, some one.</p>
+
+<p>"They were both huddled in the hall below. They had heard our voices and
+were terrified at the sound.</p>
+
+<p>"'Don't you think he is very ill?' asked Emma. 'Don't you think we ought
+to have the doctor come, in spite of his commands to the contrary?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' I gasped, 'and quickly, or we will feel like murderers.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Dr. Dudgeon is a big know-nothing,' cried Doris.</p>
+
+<p>"'But he is a doctor,' I said. And Doris went for him at once.</p>
+
+<p>"When he came Emma undertook to take him to the laboratory; I did not
+dare. I sat on the stairs and listened, shaking in every limb. What was
+going on in that room? What was my father saying? What was the doctor
+deciding? When the door opened at last I was almost unconscious. The
+sound of the doctor's voice, always loud, struck upon my ears like
+thunder, but I could not distinguish his words. Not till he had come<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+half-way down the stairs did I begin to understand them, and then I
+heard:</p>
+
+<p>"'A case of overwork! He will be better in a day or two. Send for me if
+he seems any worse.'</p>
+
+<p>"Overwork! that clay-white cheek! those dry and burning lips! the eyes
+hollowed out as if death were already making a skeleton of him! I seized
+the doctor's hand as he went by.</p>
+
+<p>"'Are you sure that is all?' I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"He gave me a pompous stare. 'I do not often repeat myself,' said he,
+and went haughtily out without another word.</p>
+
+<p>"Emma, standing at the top of the stairs, came down as the door closed
+behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"'Father was not so angry as I feared he would be. He smiled at the
+doctor and seemed glad to see him. He even roused himself up to talk,
+and for a few minutes did not look so ill as he really is.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Did the doctor leave medicine?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, yes, plenty; powder and pills.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Where is it?'</p>
+
+<p>"'On father's desk. He says he will take it regularly. He would not let
+me give it to him.'</p>
+
+<p>"I reeled; everything seemed turning round with me.</p>
+
+<p>"'Watch him,' I cried, 'watch&mdash;&mdash;' and could say no more.
+Unconsciousness had come to relieve me.</p>
+
+<p>"It was dark when I came to myself. I was lying on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> my own bed, and by
+the dim light burning on a small table near by I saw the form of Doris
+bending over me. Starting up, I caught her by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"'What is going on?' I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Rude noises were in the house. A sound of breaking glass.</p>
+
+<p>"'It comes from the laboratory,' she exclaimed, and rushed from the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"I rose and had barely strength enough to follow her. When we reached
+the laboratory door Emma was already there. A light was burning at one
+end of the long and dismal room, and amid the weird shadows that it cast
+we saw our father in a loose gown he often wore when at work, standing
+over his table with lifted fist. It was bleeding; he had just brought it
+down upon a favorite collection of tubes.</p>
+
+<p>"'Ah!' he cried, tottering and seizing the table to steady himself; 'you
+have come to see the end of my famous discovery. Here it is; look!' And
+his fist came down again upon a jar containing the work of months.</p>
+
+<p>"The smash that followed seemed to echo in my brain. I rushed forward,
+but was stopped by his look.</p>
+
+<p>"'Another result of your obduracy,' he cried, and sank back fainting
+upon the hard floor.</p>
+
+<p>"I let Emma and Doris lift him. What place had I at his side?</p>
+
+<p>"'Shall I go for the doctor again?' inquired Doris as she came to my
+room a half-hour later.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+"'Does he seem worse?' I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"'No; but he looks dreadfully. Ever since we got him on the lounge&mdash;he
+would not leave the laboratory&mdash;he has lain in one position, his eye
+upon those broken pieces of glass. He would not even let me wipe up the
+red liquid that was in them, and it drips from table to floor in a way
+to make your blood run cold.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Can I see him,' I asked, 'without his seeing me?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes,' said she, 'if you come very carefully; his head is towards the
+door.'</p>
+
+<p>"I did as she bade, and crept towards the open door. As I reached it he
+was speaking low to himself.</p>
+
+<p>"'Drop by drop,' he was saying, 'just as if it were my life-blood that
+was dripping from the table to the floor.'</p>
+
+<p>"It was a terrible thing to hear, for <i>me</i> to hear, and I shrank back.
+But soon a certain sense of duty drove me forward again, and I leaned
+across the threshold, peering at his rigid and attenuated figure lying
+just where he could watch the destruction of all his hopes. I could not
+see his face, but his attitude was eloquent, and I felt a pang strike
+through all my horror at the sight of a grief the death of both his
+children could not have occasioned him.</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly he bounded up.</p>
+
+<p>"'Curse her!' he began, in a frenzy; but instantly seemed to bethink
+himself, for he sank back very meekly as Emma stooped over him and Doris
+rushed to his side. 'Excuse me,' said he; 'I fear I am not just in my
+right mind.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+"They thought so too, and in a few minutes Doris stole out after the
+doctor, but I knew whatever delirium he had sprang from his hate of me,
+and was awed into a shrinking inactivity which Emma excused while only
+partially understanding.</p>
+
+<p>"The doctor came and this time I stood watching. My father, who had not
+expected this interference, showed anger at first, but soon settled back
+into a half-jocular, half-indifferent endurance of the interloper, which
+tended to impress the latter, and did succeed in doing so, with the
+folly of those who thought he was sick enough to rouse a doctor up at
+midnight. Few questions brought few replies, and the irritated physician
+left us with something like a rebuke. He however said he would come
+again in the morning, as there was a fitfulness in my father's pulse
+which he did not like.</p>
+
+<p>"But before the doctor appeared that morning father had called me for
+the third and last time to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"'I wish to see my eldest daughter alone,' he declared, as Emma lingered
+and Doris hovered about the open door. They at once went out. 'Now shut
+the door,' said he, as their footsteps were heard descending the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"I did as I was bid, though I felt as if I were shutting myself in with
+some horrid doom.</p>
+
+<p>"'Now come in front of me,' he commanded, 'I want to look at you. I have
+just five minutes left in which to do it.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+"'Five minutes!' I repeated hoarsely, creeping round with tottering and
+yet more tottering steps to where he pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes; the poison has done its work at last. At eight o'clock I shall be
+dead.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Poison!' I shrieked, but in so choked a tone the word sounded like a
+smothered whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"But he was alarmed by it for all that.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do not tell the world,' he cried. 'It is enough that you know it. Are
+you pleased that you have driven your father to self-destruction? Will
+it make your life in this house, in which you have vowed to remain, any
+happier? I told you that your sin should be on your head; and it will
+be. For, listen to me: now in this last dreadful hour, I command you,
+heartless and disobedient one, to keep that vow. By this awful death, by
+the despair which has driven me to it, beware of leaving these doors. In
+your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in your remorse see
+that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for hatred, dare to cross the
+threshold, or I will denounce you in the grave where I shall be gone,
+and my curse shall be upon you.'</p>
+
+<p>"He had risen in his passion as he uttered these words, but he sank back
+as he finished, and I thought he was dead. Terrified, crushed, I sank
+upon my knees, having no words with which to plead for the mercy for
+which I now longed. The next minute a horrible groan burst upon my ear.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+"'It eats&mdash;it burns into my vitals. The suffering has come,&mdash;the
+suffering which I have often noted with unconcern in the animals upon
+which I tested it. I cannot bear it; I had rather live. Get me the
+antidote; there, there, in the long narrow drawer in the cabinet by the
+wall. Not there, not there!' he shrieked, as I stumbled over the floor,
+which seemed to rise in waves beneath my feet. 'The other cabinet, the
+other drawer; <i>you are where the poison is</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>"I halted; weights seemed to be upon my feet; I could not move. He was
+writhing in agony on the floor; he no longer seemed to know where I
+stood.</p>
+
+<p>"'Open it&mdash;the drawer,' he cried. 'Bring me what is in it.'</p>
+
+<p>"I reached out my hand; heaven and earth seemed to stand still; red
+lights danced before my eyes; I drew out the drawer.</p>
+
+<p>"'Quick, quick, the powder!' he moaned; 'fetch it!'</p>
+
+<p>"I was staring at him, but my hand groped in the drawer. I felt a little
+packet of powder; I took it and crossed the room. As soon as I was near
+him he stretched out his hand and grasped it. I saw him empty it into
+his mouth; at the same instant his eyes fixed themselves in horror on
+the drawer I had left open behind me, the drawer in which the poison was
+kept.</p>
+
+<p>"'Curse you for a&mdash;&mdash;' He never said what. With this broken imprecation
+upon his lips, he sank back upon the floor, dead."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+<a name="xxv" id="xxv"></a><span class="sub3">XXV.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">EDGAR AND FRANK.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span>, who had been reading these words as if swept along by a torrent,
+started to his feet with a hoarse cry, as he reached this point. He
+could not believe his eyes, he could not believe his understanding. He
+shrank from the paper that contained the deadly revelation, as though a
+snake had suddenly uncoiled itself from amid the sheets. With hair
+slowly rising on his forehead, he stared and stared, hoping wildly,
+hoping against hope, to see other words start from the sheet, and blot
+out of existence the ones that had in an instant made his love a horror,
+his life a desert.</p>
+
+<p>But no, Heaven works no such miracle, even in sight of such an agony as
+his; and the words met his gaze relentlessly till his misery was more
+than he could endure, and he rushed from the room like a madman.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, who was busy over some medical treatise, rose rapidly as he heard
+the unsteady footsteps of his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" he cried, as Frank came stumbling into his
+presence. "You look&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind how I look; comfort me, Edgar, comfort me!" and in his
+anguish he burst into irrepressible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> sobs "Hermione is&mdash;&mdash;" He could not
+say what, but drew his friend after him to the room where the letter
+lay, and pointed to the few ghastly lines which had undone him. "Read
+those," he panted. "She had suffered; she was not herself, but, oh&mdash;&mdash;"
+He broke down again, and did not try to speak further till Edgar had
+read the hideous confession contained in those closing lines, and some
+of the revelations which had led up to it. Then he said: "Do not speak
+to me yet; let me bear the horror alone. I loved her so; ah, I did love
+her!"</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, who had turned very pale, was considerate enough to respect this
+grief, and silently wait for Frank to regain sufficient composure to
+talk with him. This was not soon, but when the moment came, Edgar showed
+that his heart beat truly under all his apparent indifference. He did
+not say, "I bade you beware"; he merely took his friend's hand and wrung
+it. Frank, who was almost overwhelmed with shame and sorrow, muttered
+some words of acknowledgment.</p>
+
+<p>"I must get out of the town," said he. "I feel as if the very atmosphere
+here would choke me."</p>
+
+<p>Here came again the long, doleful drone of the foghorn. "How like a
+groan that is," said he. "An evil day it was for me when I first came
+within its foreboding sound."</p>
+
+<p>"We will say that when all is over," ventured Edgar, but in no very
+hopeful tones. "You should not have shown me these words, Frank; the
+wonder is that she was willing to show them to you."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+"She could not otherwise get rid of my importunities. I would take no
+hint, and so she tells me the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"That shows nobleness," remarked Edgar. "She has some virtues which may
+excuse you to yourself for the weakness you have shown in her regard."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare not think of it," said Frank. "I dare not think of her again.
+Yet to leave her when she is suffering so! Is not that almost as cruel a
+fate as to learn that she is so unworthy?"</p>
+
+<p>"I would you had never come here!" exclaimed Edgar, with unwonted
+fervency.</p>
+
+<p>"There are more words," observed Frank, "but I cannot read them. "Words
+of sorrow and remorse, no doubt, but what do they avail? The fact
+remains that she gave her father in his agony another dose of the poison
+that was killing him, instead of the antidote for which he prayed."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Edgar, "only I feel bound to say that no antidote would have
+saved him then. I know the poison and I know the antidote; we have
+tested them together often."</p>
+
+<p>Frank shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>"He had the heart of a demon," declared Edgar, "to plan and carry out
+such a revenge, even upon a daughter who had so grievously disappointed
+him. I can hardly believe the tale, only that I have learned that one
+may believe anything of human nature."</p>
+
+<p>"She&mdash;she did not kill him, then?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+"No, but her guilt is as great as if she had, for she must have had the
+momentary instinct of murder."</p>
+
+<p>"O Hermione, Hermione! so beautiful and so unhappy!"</p>
+
+<p>"A momentary instinct, which she is expiating fearfully. No wonder she
+does not leave the house. No wonder that her face looks like a tragic
+mask."</p>
+
+<p>"No one seems to have suspected her guilt, or even his. We have never
+heard any whispers about poison."</p>
+
+<p>"Dudgeon is a conceited fool. Having once said overwork, he would stick
+to overwork. Besides that poison is very subtle; I would have difficulty
+in detecting its workings myself."</p>
+
+<p>"And this is the tragedy of that home! Oh, how much worse, how much more
+fearful than any I have attributed to it!"</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"What has not Emma had to bear," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Emma!" Frank unconsciously roused himself. "If I remember rightly,
+Hermione has said that Emma did not know all her trouble."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God! May she never be enlightened."</p>
+
+<p>"Edgar," whispered Frank, "I do not think I can let you read all that
+letter, though it tells much you ought to know. I have yet some
+consideration&mdash;for&mdash;for Hermione&mdash;" (How hard the word came from lips
+which once uttered it with so much pride!)&mdash;"and she never expected any
+other eyes than mine to rest upon these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> revelations of her heart of
+hearts. But one thing I must tell you in justice to yourself and the
+girl upon whom no shadow rests but that of a most loyal devotion to a
+most wretched sister. Not from her heart did the refusal come which
+blighted your hopes and made you cynical towards women. There were
+reasons she could not communicate, reasons she could not even dwell upon
+herself, why she felt forced to dismiss you, and in the seemingly
+heartless way she did."</p>
+
+<p>"I am willing to believe it," said Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>"Emma is a pure and beautiful spirit," observed Frank, and gave himself
+up to grief for her who was not, and yet who commanded his pity for her
+sufferings and possibly for her provocations.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar now had enough of his own to think of, and if Frank had been less
+absorbed in his own trouble he might have observed with what longing
+eyes his friend turned every now and then towards the sheets which
+contained so much of Emma's history as well as her sister's. Finally he
+spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"Why does Emma remain in the house to which the father only condemned
+her sister?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she once vowed to share that sister's fate, whatever it might
+be."</p>
+
+<p>"Her love for her sister is then greater than any other passion she may
+have had."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know; there were other motives beside love to influence her,"
+explained Frank, and said no more.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+Edgar sank again into silence. It was Frank who spoke next.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think"&mdash;He paused and moistened his lips&mdash;"Have you doubted what
+our duty is about this matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"To leave the girl&mdash;you said it yourself. Have you any other idea,
+Frank?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; that is not what I mean," stammered Etheridge. "I mean
+about&mdash;about&mdash;the father's death. Should the world know? Is it a matter
+for the&mdash;for the police?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," cried Edgar, aghast. "Mr. Cavanagh evidently killed himself. It is
+a dreadful thing to know, but I do not see why we need make it public."</p>
+
+<p>Frank drew a long breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I feared," he said,&mdash;"I did not know but you would think my duty would
+lie in&mdash;in&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't speak of it," exclaimed Edgar. "If you do not wish to finish
+reading her confession, put it up. Here is a drawer, in which you can
+safely lock it."</p>
+
+<p>Frank, recoiling from the touch of those papers which had made such a
+havoc with his life, motioned to Edgar to do what he would with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not going to write&mdash;to answer this in some way?" asked Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God she has not made that necessary. She wrote somewhere, in the
+beginning, I think, that, if I felt the terror of her words too deeply,
+I was to pass by her house on the other side of the street at an early
+hour in the morning. Did she dream that I could do anything else?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+Edgar closed the drawer in which he had hidden her letter, locked it,
+and laid the key down on the table beside Frank.</p>
+
+<p>Frank did not observe the action; he had risen to his feet, and in
+another moment had left the room. He had reached the point of feeling
+the need of air and a wider space in which to breathe. As he stepped
+into the street, he turned in a contrary direction to that in which he
+had been wont to walk. Had he not done this; had he gone southward, as
+usual, he might have seen the sly and crouching figure which was drawn
+up on that side of the house, peering into the room he had just left
+through the narrow opening made by an imperfectly lowered shade.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+<a name="xxvi" id="xxvi"></a><span class="sub1">BOOK III.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub2">UNCLE AND NIECE.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub3">XXVI.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">THE WHITE POWDER.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was nine o'clock in the morning, and Hermione stood in the laboratory
+window overlooking the street. Pale from loss of sleep and exhausted
+with the fever of anxiety which had consumed her ever since she had
+despatched her letter to Mr. Etheridge, she looked little able to cope
+with any disappointment which might be in store for her. But as she
+leaned there watching for Frank, it was evident from her whole bearing
+that she was moved by a fearful hope rather than by an overmastering
+dread; perhaps because she had such confidence in his devotion; perhaps
+because there was such vitality in her own love.</p>
+
+<p>Her manner was that of one who thinks himself alone, and yet she was not
+alone. At the other end of the long and dismal apartment glided the sly
+figure of Huckins. No longer shabby and unkempt, but dressed with a
+neatness which would have made his sister Cynthia stare in amazement if
+she could have risen from her grave to see him, he flitted about with
+noiseless tread, listening to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> every sigh that escaped from his niece's
+lips, and marking, though he scarcely glanced her way, each turn of her
+head and each bend of her body, as if he were fully aware of her reasons
+for standing there, and the importance of the issues hanging upon the
+occurrences of the next fifteen minutes.</p>
+
+<p>She may have known of his presence, and she may not. Her preoccupation
+was great, and her attention fixed not upon anything in the room, but
+upon the street without. Yet she may have felt the influence of that
+gliding Evil, moving, snake-like, at her back. If she did she gave no
+sign, and the moments came and went without any change in her eager
+attitude or any cessation in the ceaseless movements with which he
+beguiled his own anxiety and the devilish purposes which were slowly
+forming themselves in his selfish and wicked mind.</p>
+
+<p>At length she gave a start, and leaned heavily forward. Huckins, who was
+expecting this proof of sudden interest, paused where he was, and
+surveyed her with undisguised eagerness in his baleful eyes, while the
+words "She sees him; he is coming" formed themselves upon his thin and
+quivering lips, though no sound disturbed the silence, and neither he
+nor she seemed to breathe.</p>
+
+<p>And he was right. Frank was coming down the street, not gayly and with
+the buoyant step of a happy lover, but with head sunk upon his breast
+and eyes lowered to the ground. Will he lift them as he approaches the
+gate? Will he smile, as in the olden time&mdash;the olden time that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> was
+yesterday&mdash;and raise his hand towards the gate and swing it back and
+enter with that lightsome air of his at once protecting and
+joy-inspiring? He looks very serious now, and his steps falter; but
+surely, surely, his love is not going to fail him at the crisis; surely,
+surely, he who has overlooked so much will not be daunted by the little
+more with which she has tried his devotion; surely, surely&mdash;&mdash; But his
+eyes do not lift themselves. He is at the gate, but his hand is not
+raised to it, and the smile does not come. He is going by, not on the
+other side of the street, but going by, going by, which means&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>As the consciousness of what it did mean pierced her heart and soul,
+Hermione gave a great cry&mdash;she never knew how great a cry&mdash;and, staring
+like one demented after the beloved figure that in her disordered sight
+seemed to shrink and waver as it vanished, sank helpless upon the window
+sill, with her head falling forward, in a deadly faint.</p>
+
+<p>Huckins, hearing that cry, slowly rubbed his hands together and smiled
+as the Dark One might smile at the sudden downfall of some doubtful
+soul. Then he passed softly to the door, and, shutting it carefully,
+came back and recommenced his restless pacings, but this time with an
+apparent purpose of investigation, for he opened and shut drawers, not
+quietly, but with a decided clatter, and peered here and there into
+bottles and jars, casting, as he did so, ready side-glances at the
+drooping figure from which the moans of a fatal despair were now slowly
+breaking.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+When those moans became words, he stopped and listened, and this was
+what he heard come faltering from her lips:</p>
+
+<p>"Twice! twice! Once when I felt myself strong and now when I feel myself
+weak. It is too much for a proud woman. I cannot bear it."</p>
+
+<p>At this evidence of revolt and discouragement, Huckins' smile grew in
+its triumph. He seemed to glide nearer to her; yet he did not stir.</p>
+
+<p>She saw nothing. If she had once recognized his presence, he was to her
+now as one blotted from existence. She was saying over and over to
+herself: "No hope! no hope! I am cursed! My father's hate reaches higher
+than my prayers. There is no escape; no love, no light. Solitude is
+before me; solitude forever. Believing this, I cannot live; indeed I
+cannot!"</p>
+
+<p>As if this had been the word for which he was waiting, Huckins suddenly
+straightened up his lean figure and began himself to talk, not as she
+did, in wild and passionate tones, but in low, abstracted murmurs, as if
+he were too intent upon a certain discovery he had made to know or care
+whether there was or was not any one present to overhear his words.</p>
+
+<p>And what did he say? what could he say at a moment like this? Listen and
+gauge the evil in the man, for it is deep as his avarice and relentless
+as his purpose to enjoy the riches which he considers his due. He is
+standing by a cabinet, the cabinet on the left of the room, and his hand
+is in a long and narrow drawer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+"What is this?" (Mark the surprise in his tone.) "A packet labelled
+<i>Poison</i>? This is a strange thing to find lying about in an open drawer.
+<i>Poison!</i> I wonder what use brother Cavanagh had for poison?"</p>
+
+<p>He pauses; was it because he had heard a moan or cry break from the spot
+where Hermione crouched against the wall? No, there was silence there, a
+deep and awful silence, which ought to have made the flesh creep upon
+his bones, but which, instead, seemed to add a greater innocence to his
+musing tones.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it was what was left after some old experiment. It is very
+dangerous stuff. I should not like to drop these few grains of white
+powder upon my tongue, unless I wanted to be rid of all my troubles.
+Guess I had better shake the paper out of the window, or those girls
+will come across it some day, and may see that word Poison and be moved
+by it. Life in this house hasn't many attractions."</p>
+
+<p>Any sound now from that dim, distant corner? No, silence is there still;
+deadly silence. He smiles darkly, and speaks again; very low now, but
+oh, how clearly!</p>
+
+<p>"But what business is it of mine? I find poison in this drawer, and I
+leave it where I find it, and shut the drawer. It may be wanted for
+rats, and it is always a mistake for old folks to meddle. But I should
+like to; I'd like to throw this same innocent-looking white powder out
+of the window; it makes <i>me</i> afraid to think of it lying shut up here in
+a drawer so easily opened&mdash;&mdash; My<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> child! Hermione!" he suddenly shrieked,
+"what do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>She was standing before him, a white and terrible figure.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," came from her set lips, in a low and even tone; but she laid
+one hand upon the drawer he had half shut and with the other pointed to
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>He shrank from her, appalled perhaps at his work; perhaps at her
+recognition of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't," he feebly protested, shaking with terror, or was it with a
+hideous anxiety? "There is poison in that drawer; do not open it."</p>
+
+<p>"Go for my sister," was the imperious command. "I have no use for you
+here, but for her I have."</p>
+
+<p>"You won't open that drawer," he prayed, as he retreated before her eyes
+in frightened jerks and breathless pauses.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I do not need you," she repeated, her hand still on the
+drawer, her form rigid, her face blue-white and drawn.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I will bring Emma," he faltered, and shambled across the threshold,
+throwing back upon her a look she may have noted and may not, but which
+if she had understood, would certainly have made her pause. "I will go
+for Emma," he said again, closing the door behind him with a touch which
+seemed to make even that senseless wood fall away from him. Then he
+listened&mdash;listened instead of going for the gentle sister whose
+presence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> might have calmed the turbulent spirit he had just left. And
+as he listened his face gradually took on a satisfied look, till, at a
+certain sound from within, he allowed his hands the luxury of a final
+congratulatory rub, and then gliding from the place, went below.</p>
+
+<p>Emma was standing in the parlor window, fixed in dismay at the sight of
+Frank's going by without word or look; but Huckins did not stop to give
+her the message with which he had been entrusted. Instead of that he
+passed into the kitchen, and not till he had crossed the floor and
+shambled out into the open air of the garden did he venture to turn and
+say to the watching Doris:</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid Miss Hermione is not quite well."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+<a name="xxvii" id="xxvii"></a><span class="sub3">XXVII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">THE HAND OF HUCKINS.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span> exhausted his courage in passing Hermione's door. When he heard
+the cry she gave, he stopped for a moment, then rushed hastily on, not
+knowing whither, and not caring, so long as he never saw the street or
+the house or the poplars again.</p>
+
+<p>He intended, as much as he intended anything, to take the train for New
+York, but when he came sufficiently to himself to think of the hour, he
+found that he was in a wood quite remote from the station, and that both
+the morning and noon trains had long since passed.</p>
+
+<p>It was not much of a disappointment. He was in that stage of misery in
+which everything seems blurred, and life and its duties too unreal for
+contemplation. He did not wish to act or even to think. The great
+solitude about him was more endurable than the sight of human faces, but
+I doubt if he would have been other than solitary anywhere, or seen
+aught but her countenance in any place where he might have been.</p>
+
+<p>And what made this the more torturing to him was the fact that he always
+saw her with an accusing look on her face. Never with bowed forehead or
+in an attitude of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> shame, but with the straightforward aspect of one
+utterly grieved where she had expected consideration and forbearance.
+This he knew to be a freak of his fancy, for had he not her words to
+prove she had merited his condemnation? But fancy or not, it followed
+him, softening unconsciously his thought of her, though it never for an
+instant weakened his resolve not to see her again or exchange another
+word with one whose conscience was laden with so heavy a crime.</p>
+
+<p>The wood in which he found himself wandering skirted the town towards
+the west, so that when, in the afternoon, hunger and weariness drove him
+back to the abodes of men, he had but to follow the beaten track which
+ran through it, to come out at the other end of the village from that by
+which he had entered.</p>
+
+<p>The place where he emerged was near a dark pool at the base of the hill
+on which was perched the Baptist church.</p>
+
+<p>As he saw this pool and caught a sight of the steeple towering above him
+in the summer sky, he felt himself grow suddenly frantic. Here she had
+stood with Emma, halting between life and death. Here she had been
+seized by her first temptation, and had been saved from it only to fall
+into another one immeasurably greater and more damning. Horrible,
+loathsome pool! why had it not swallowed her? Would it not have been
+better that it had? He dared to think so, and bent above its dismal
+depths with a fascination which in another moment made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> him recoil and
+dash away in horror towards the open spaces of the high-road.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar had just come in from his round of visits when Frank appeared
+before him. Having supposed him to be in New York, he uttered a loud
+exclamation. Whereupon Frank exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"I could not go. I seemed to be chained to this place. I have been
+wandering all day in the woods." And he sank into a chair exhausted,
+caring little whether Edgar noted or not his weary and dishevelled
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"You look ill," observed the Doctor; "or perhaps you have not eaten; let
+me get you a cup of coffee."</p>
+
+<p>Frank looked up but made no further sign.</p>
+
+<p>"You will stay with me to-night," suggested Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>"I am chained," repeated Frank, and that was all.</p>
+
+<p>With a look of sincerest compassion the Doctor quietly left the room. He
+had his own griefs, but he could master them; beside, the angel of hope
+was already whispering sweet messages to his secret soul. But Frank's
+trouble was beyond alleviation, and it crushed him as his own had never
+done, possibly because in this case his pride was powerless to sustain
+him. When he came back, he found Frank seated at the desk poring over
+the fatal letter. He had found the key of the drawer lying where he had
+left it, and, using it under a sudden impulse, had opened the drawer and
+taken out the sheets he had vowed never to touch again.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar paused when he saw the other's bended head<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> and absorbed air, and
+though he was both annoyed and perplexed he said nothing, but set down
+the tray he had brought very near to Frank's elbow.</p>
+
+<p>The young lawyer neither turned nor gave it any attention.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, with the wonted patience of a physician, sat down and waited for
+his friend to move. He would not interrupt him, but would simply be in
+readiness to hand the coffee when Frank turned. But he never handed him
+that cup of coffee, for suddenly, Frank, with a wild air and eyes fixed
+in a dazed stare upon the paper, started to his feet, and uttering a
+cry, began turning over the two or three sheets he was reading, as if he
+had made some almost incomprehensible discovery.</p>
+
+<p>"Edgar, Edgar," he hurriedly gasped, "read these over for me; I cannot
+see the words; there is something different here; we have made a
+mistake! Oh, what has happened! my head is all in a whirl."</p>
+
+<p>He sank back in his chair. Edgar, rushing forward, seized the half dozen
+sheets offered him and glanced eagerly over them.</p>
+
+<p>"I see no difference," he cried; but as he went on, driven by Frank's
+expectant eye, he gave a surprised start also, and turning back the
+pages, read them again and again, crying at last:</p>
+
+<p>"We must have overlooked one of these sheets. We read her letter without
+this page. What a mischance! for with these words left in it is no
+longer a confession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> we have before us, but a narrative. Frank, Frank,
+we have wronged the girl. She has no crime to bemoan, only a misery to
+relate."</p>
+
+<p>"Read it aloud," broke from Frank's lips. "Let me hear it from your
+mouth. How could we have overlooked such a page? Oh, my poor girl! my
+poor girl!"</p>
+
+<p>Edgar, beginning back a page or two from the one which had before
+escaped their attention, read as follows. The portion marked by brackets
+is the one that was new to both their eyes:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"But before the doctor appeared that morning father had called
+me for the third and last time to his side.</p>
+
+<p>"'I wish to see my eldest daughter alone,' he declared, as Emma
+lingered and Doris hovered about the open door. They at once
+went out. 'Now shut the door,' said he, as their footsteps were
+heard descending the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"I did as I was bid, though I felt as if I were shutting myself
+in with some horrid doom.</p>
+
+<p>"'Now come in front of me,' he commanded. 'I want to look at
+you; I have just five minutes left in which to do it.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Five minutes!' I repeated hoarsely, creeping round with
+tottering and yet more tottering steps to where he pointed.</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes; the poison has done its work at last. At eight o'clock I
+shall be dead.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+"'Poison!' I shrieked, but in so choked a tone the word sounded
+like a smothered whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"But he was alarmed by it for all that.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do not tell the world,' he cried. 'It is enough that you know
+it. Are you pleased that you have driven your father to
+self-destruction? Will it make your life in this house, in which
+you have vowed to remain, any happier? I told you that your sin
+should be on your head, and it will be. For, listen to me: now
+in this last dreadful hour, I command you, heartless and
+disobedient one, to keep that vow. By this awful death, by the
+despair which has driven me to it, beware of leaving these
+doors. In your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in
+your remorse see that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for
+hatred, dare to cross the threshold, or I will denounce you in
+the grave where I shall be gone, and my curse shall be upon
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>"He had risen in his passion as he uttered these words, but he
+sank back as he finished, and I thought he was dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Terrified, crushed, I sank upon my knees, having no words with
+which to plead for the mercy for which I now longed. The next
+minute a horrible groan burst upon my ear.</p>
+
+<p>"'It eats&mdash;it burns into my vitals. The suffering has come,&mdash;the
+suffering which I have often noted with unconcern in the animals
+upon which I had tested it. I cannot bear it; I had rather live.
+Get me the antidote;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> there, there in the long, narrow drawer in
+the cabinet by the wall! Not there, not there!' he shrieked, as
+I stumbled over the floor, which seemed to rise in waves beneath
+my feet. 'The other cabinet, the other drawer; <i>you are where
+the poison is</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>"I halted; weights seemed to be upon my feet; I could not move.
+He was writhing in agony on the floor; he no longer seemed to
+know where I stood.</p>
+
+<div class="bracket">
+<p>"'The antidote!' he moaned, 'the antidote!'
+I burst the bonds which held me, and leaving open
+the drawer which I had half pulled out in my eagerness
+to relieve him, I rushed across the room to the
+cabinet he had pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>"'The long drawer,' he murmured, 'the one
+like the other. Pull it hard; it is not locked!'</p>
+
+<p>"I tried to do as he commanded, but my hand
+slid helplessly from drawer to drawer. I could
+hardly see. He moaned and shrieked again.</p>
+
+<p>"'The long one, I say, the long one!'</p>
+
+<p>"As he spoke my hand touched it.</p>
+
+<p>"'I have it,' I panted forth.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"'Open it&mdash;the drawer,' he cried. 'Bring me what is in it.'</p>
+
+<p>"I reached out my hand; heaven and earth seemed to stand still;
+red lights danced before my eyes; I drew out the drawer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+"'Quick, quick, the powder!' he moaned; 'fetch it!'</p>
+
+<p>"I was staring at him, but my hand groped in the drawer. I felt
+a little packet of powder; I took it and crossed the room. As
+soon as I was near him he stretched out his hand and grasped it.
+I saw him empty it into his mouth; at the same instant his eyes
+fixed themselves in horror on the drawer I had left open behind
+me, the drawer in which the poison was kept.</p>
+
+<p>"'Curse you for a &mdash;&mdash;' He never said what. With this broken
+imprecation upon his lips, he sank back upon the floor, dead." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"God, what a difference!" cried Edgar. But Frank, trembling from head to
+foot, reached out and took the sheets, and laying them on the desk
+before him, buried his face in them. When he looked up again, Edgar, for
+all his own relief, was startled by the change in him.</p>
+
+<p>"Her vindication comes late," said he, "but I will go at once and
+explain&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait; let us first understand how we both were led to make such a
+mistake. Could the leaves have stuck together?"</p>
+
+<p>There were no signs of this having happened. Yet who could say that this
+was not the real explanation of the whole matter? The most curious
+feature of the occurrence was that just the missing of that one sheet
+should have so altered the sense of what they read. They did not know
+then or ever that this very fact had struck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> Huckins also in his stolen
+reading of the same, and that it had been his hand which had abstracted
+it and then again restored it when he thought the mutilated manuscript
+had done its work. They never knew this, as I say, but they thought the
+chance which had occurred to them a very strange one, and tried to lay
+it to their agitation at the time, or to any cause but the real one.</p>
+
+<p>The riddle proving insolvable, they abandoned it, and Frank again rose.
+But Edgar drawing his attention to the few additional sheets which he
+had never read, he sat down again in eagerness to peruse them. Let us
+read them with him, for in them we shall find the Hermione of to-day,
+not the angry and imperious woman upon whom her father revenged himself
+by a death calculated to blot the sun from her skies and happiness from
+her heart forever.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"When Emma came to the room she discovered me kneeling, rigid and
+horror-stricken, above my father's outstretched form. She says that I
+met her eyes with mine, but that there was no look of life within them.
+Indeed, I was hardly alive, and have no remembrance of how I was taken
+from that room or what happened in the house for hours. When I did
+rouse, Emma was beside me. Her look was one of grief but not of horror,
+and I saw she had no idea of what had passed between my father and
+myself during the last few days. Dr. Dudgeon had told her that our
+father had died of heart-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>disease, and she believed him, and thought my
+terror was due to the suddenness of his end and the fact that I was
+alone with him at the time.</p>
+
+<p>"She therefore smiled with a certain faint encouragement when I opened
+my eyes upon her face, but pushed me back with gentle hand when I tried
+to rise, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"'All is well with father, Hermione,&mdash;so think only of yourself just
+now; I do not think you are able to get up.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was only too happy not to make the effort. If only my eyes had never
+opened! If only I had sunk from unconsciousness into the perfect peace
+of death! But even that idea made me quake. <i>He</i> was <i>there</i>, and I had
+such a horror of him, that it seemed for a moment that I would rather
+live forever than to encounter him again, even in a world where the
+secrets of all hearts lie open.</p>
+
+<p>"'Did not father forgive you?' murmured Emma, marking perhaps the
+expression of my face.</p>
+
+<p>"I smiled a bitter smile.</p>
+
+<p>"'Do not ever let us talk about father,' I prayed. 'He has condemned me
+to this house, and that will make me remember him sufficiently without
+words.'</p>
+
+<p>"She rose horror-stricken.</p>
+
+<p>"'O Hermione!' she murmured; 'O Hermione!' and hid her face in her hands
+and wept.</p>
+
+<p>"But I lay silent, tearless.</p>
+
+<p>"When the funeral procession passed out of the house without us, the
+people stared. But no thought of there being anything back of this
+seeming disrespect, save the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> caprice of two very whimsical girls,
+seemed to strike the mind of any one. The paper which had held the
+antidote I had long ago picked up from the laboratory floor; while the
+open drawer with the packet in it marked <i>Poison</i> had doubtless been
+shut by Doris on her first entrance into the room after his death. For I
+not only found it closed, but I never heard any one speak of it, or of
+any peculiar symptoms attending my father's death.</p>
+
+<p>"But the arrow was in my heart for all that, and for weeks my life was
+little more than a nightmare. All the pride which had upheld me was
+gone. I felt myself a crushed woman. The pall which my father had thrown
+over me in his self-inflicted death, hung heavy and stifling about me. I
+breathed, but it seemed to be in gasps, and when exhausted nature gave
+way and I slept, it was to live over again in dreams those last fearful
+moments of his life, and hear, with even more distinctness than in my
+waking hours, the words of the final curse with which he sank to the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>"I had not deserved it&mdash;that I felt; but I suffered all the same, and
+suffered all the more that I could take no confidant into my troubles.
+Emma, with her broken life, had had disappointments enough without this
+revelation of a father's vindictiveness, and though it might have eased
+me for the moment to hear her words of sympathy, I knew that I should
+find it harder to face her day by day, if this ghost of horror once rose
+between us. No; the anguish was mine, and must be borne by me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> alone. So
+I crushed it down into my heart and was silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Meantime the command which had been laid upon me by my father, never to
+leave the house, was weaving a chain about me I soon found it impossible
+to break. Had I immediately upon his death defied his will and rushed
+frenziedly out of the gate, I might have grown to feel it easy to walk
+the streets again in the face of a curse which should never have been
+laid upon me. But the custom of obeying his dying mandate soon got its
+hold upon me, and I could not overcome it. At the very thought of
+crossing the threshold I would tremble; and though when I looked at Emma
+heroically sharing my fate without knowing the reasons for my
+persistency, I would dream for a moment of breaking the spell those
+dying lips had laid upon me, I always found myself drawing back in
+terror, almost as if I had been caught by fleshless fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"And so the weeks passed and we settled into the monotonous existence of
+an uninterrupted seclusion. What had been the expression of my
+self-will, became now a species of expiation. For though I had not
+deserved the awful burden which had been imposed upon me of a father's
+death and curse, I had deserved punishment, and this I now saw, and this
+I now endeavored to meet, with something like the meekness of
+repentance. I accepted my doom, and tried not to dwell so much upon my
+provocations as upon the temper with which I met<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> them, and the hardness
+with which I strove to triumph over my disappointments. And in doing
+this I became less hard, preparing my heart, though I did not know it,
+for that new seed of love which fate was about to drop into it.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Etheridge, I have told you all my story. If it strikes you with
+dismay and you shrink in your noble manhood from a woman whom,
+rightfully or wrongfully, is burdened with the weight of a father's
+death, do not try to overcome that shrinking or defy that dismay. We
+could never be happy if you did. Nothing but whole-souled love will
+satisfy me or help me to forget the shadows that bear so heavily upon my
+head. You say you love me, but your emotions upon reading this letter
+will prove to yourself what is the true strength and nature of your
+feelings. Let them, then, have their honest way. If they are in my favor
+I shall be the happiest girl alive, but if they lead you to go by on the
+other side of the street, then will I strive to bear this sorrow also,
+as one who has been much to blame for the evils which have befallen
+her."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>That was all. As Frank folded the last sheet and put it and the rest
+quietly away in his pocket, Edgar saw, or thought he saw, that happier
+hours were about to dawn for Hermione Cavanagh. It made him think of his
+own love and of the claims of the gentle Emma.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," said he, with the effort of a reticent man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> compelled at last
+to make an admission, "if you are going to the Cavanaghs, I
+think&mdash;I&mdash;will&mdash;go&mdash;with you."</p>
+
+<p>Frank started and leaped forward warmly with outstretched hand. But
+before their two palms could meet, the door was violently opened and a
+messenger came panting in with the announcement:</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. Sellick's wanted. Hermione Cavanagh is at the point of death."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+<a name="xxviii" id="xxviii"></a><span class="sub3">XXVIII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">IN EXTREMITY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frank</span> and Edgar were equally pale as they reached the Cavanagh house. No
+time had been lost on the way, and yet the moments had been long enough
+for them both to be the prey of the wildest conjectures. The messenger
+who had brought the startling news of Hermione's illness knew nothing
+concerning the matter beyond the fact that Doris, their servant, had
+called to him, as he was passing their house, to run for Dr. Sellick, as
+Miss Hermione was dying. They were therefore entirely in the dark as to
+what had happened, and entered the house, upon their arrival, like men
+for whom some terrible doom might be preparing.</p>
+
+<p>The first person they encountered was Huckins. He was standing in the
+parlor window, rubbing his hands slowly together and smiling very softly
+to himself. But when he saw the two young men, he came forward with a
+cringing bow and an expression of hypocritical grief, which revived all
+Frank's distrust and antipathy.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir," he exclaimed to Frank, "you here? You should not have come;
+indeed you should not. Sad case," he added, turning to the Doctor; "very
+sad case,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> this which we have upstairs. I fear we are going to lose the
+dear young lady." And he wiped his half-shut eyes with his fine white
+handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see her; where is she?" cried the Doctor, not stopping to look
+around him, though the place must have been full of the most suggestive
+associations.</p>
+
+<p>"Doris will show you. She was in the laboratory when I saw her last. A
+dangerous place for a young lady who has been jilted by her lover!" And
+he turned a very twinkling eye on Frank.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" cried Frank. "The laboratory! The place where&mdash;&mdash; O
+Edgar, go to her, go at once."</p>
+
+<p>But Edgar was already half-way upstairs, at the top of which he was met
+by Doris.</p>
+
+<p>"What is this?" he cried. "What has happened to Miss Cavanagh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come and see," she said. "O that she should go out of the house first
+in this way!"</p>
+
+<p>Alarmed more by the woman's manner than her words, Dr. Sellick hurried
+forward and entered the open laboratory door almost without realizing
+that in another instant he would be in the presence of Emma. And when he
+did see her, and met the eyes he had not looked into since that night a
+year before when she listened to his vows with such a sweet and bashful
+timidity, he hardly felt the shock of the change observable in her, for
+the greater shock her sister's appearance inspired. For Hermione lay on
+that same old couch which had once held<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> her father, ill to
+speechlessness, and though the Doctor did not know what had brought her
+to this condition, he began to suspect and doubt if he were in time to
+revive her.</p>
+
+<p>"What has she taken?" he demanded. "Something, or she would not be as
+low as this without more warning."</p>
+
+<p>Emma, quaking, put a little piece of paper in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I found this in her pocket," she whispered. "It was only a little while
+ago. It is quite empty," said she, "or you would have had two patients."</p>
+
+<p>He stared at her, hardly taking in her words. Then he leaped to the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," he cried, tossing down a slip of paper on which he had hastily
+written a word, "go with this to the druggist at once! Run, for moments
+are precious!"</p>
+
+<p>They heard a shout in answer; then the noise of the front door opening
+and shutting, and the sound of rapidly departing steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God!" the young physician murmured, as he came back into the
+laboratory, "that I studied chemistry with Mr. Cavanagh, or I might not
+know just what antidote was required here."</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" Emma whispered; "she moved, when you said the word <i>Frank</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor leaned forward and took Emma's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"If we can rouse her enough to make her speak, she will be saved. When
+did she take that powder?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear she took it this morning, shortly after&mdash;after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> nine o'clock;
+but she did not begin to grow seriously ill till an hour ago, when she
+suddenly threw up her arms and shrieked."</p>
+
+<p>"And didn't you know; didn't you suspect&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, for she said nothing. She only looked haggard and clung to me;
+clung as if she could not bear to have me move an inch away from her
+side."</p>
+
+<p>"And how long has she been unconscious and in that clammy, cold sweat?"</p>
+
+<p>"A little while; just before we sent for you. I&mdash;I hated to disturb you
+at first, but life is everything, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He gave her one deep, reassuring look.</p>
+
+<p>"Emma," he softly murmured, "if we save your sister, four hearts shall
+be happy. See if you can make her stir. Tell her that Frank is here, and
+wants to see her."</p>
+
+<p>Emma, with a brightening countenance, leaned over and kissed Hermione's
+marble-like brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione," she cried, "Hermione! Frank wants you; he is tired of
+waiting. Come, dear; shall I not tell him you will come?"</p>
+
+<p>A quiver at the word <i>Frank</i>, but that was all.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Frank, dear; Frank!" Emma persisted. "Rouse up long enough just
+to see him. He loves you, Hermione."</p>
+
+<p>Not even a quiver now. Dr. Sellick began to turn pale.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione, will you leave us now, just as you are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> going to be happy?
+Listen, listen to Emma. You know I have always told you the truth. Frank
+is here, ready to love you. Wake, darling; wake, dearest&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There was no use. No marble could be more unresponsive. Dr. Sellick
+rushed in anguish to the door. But the step he heard there was that of
+Huckins, and it was Huckins' face he encountered at the head of the
+stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she dead?" cried that worthy, bending forward to look into the room.
+"I was afraid, <i>very</i> much afraid, you could not do any good, when I saw
+how cold she was, poor dear."</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor, not hearing him, shouted out: "The antidote! the antidote!
+Why does not Frank come!"</p>
+
+<p>At that instant Frank was heard below: "Am I in time?" he gasped. "Here
+it is; I ran all the way"; and he came rushing up the stairs just as
+Huckins slipped from the step where he was and fell against him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," whimpered that old hypocrite, "I beg your pardon; I am so
+agitated!" But his agitation seemed to spring mainly from the fact that
+the antidote Frank brought was in powder and not in a bottle, which
+might have been broken in their encounter.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Sellick, who saw nothing but the packet Frank held, grasped the
+remedy and dashed back into the room. Frank followed and stood in
+anguished suspense within the open doorway. Huckins crouched and
+murmured to himself on the stair.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+"Can we get her to take it? Is there hope?" murmured Emma.</p>
+
+<p>No word came in reply; the Doctor was looking fixedly at his patient.</p>
+
+<p>"Frank," he said solemnly, "come and take her hand in yours. Nothing
+else will ever make her unlock her lips."</p>
+
+<p>Frank, reeling in his misery, entered and fell at her feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione," he endeavored to say, but the word would not come. Breaking
+into sobs he took her hand and laid his forehead upon it. Would that
+anguish of the beloved one arouse her? Dr. Sellick and Emma drew near
+together in their anxiety and watched. Suddenly a murmur escaped from
+the former, and he bent rapidly forward. The close-locked lips were
+parting, parting so slowly, so imperceptibly, that only a physician's
+eye could see it. Waiting till they were opened enough to show the
+pearly teeth, he stooped and whispered in Frank's ear. Instantly the
+almost overwhelmed lover, roused, saw this evidence of existing life,
+and in his frenzied relief imprinted one wild kiss upon the hand he
+held. It seemed to move her, to reach her heart, to stay the soul just
+hovering on the confines of life, for the lips parted further, the lids
+of the eyes trembled, and before the reaction came, Dr. Sellick had
+succeeded in giving her a few grains of the impalpable powder he was
+holding.</p>
+
+<p>"It will either kill or restore her," said he. "In five minutes we shall
+know the result."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+And when at the end of those five minutes they heard a soft sigh, they
+never thought, in their sudden joy and relief, to look for the sneaking
+figure trembling on the staircase, who, at this first sign of reviving
+life in one he thought dead, slid from his station and went creeping
+down the stairs, with baffled looks that would have frightened even
+Doris had she seen them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
+<a name="xxix" id="xxix"></a><span class="sub3">XXIX.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">IN THE POPLAR WALK.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Two</span> days had passed. Hermione was sitting in the cheerful sitting-room
+with the choicest of flowers about her and the breeze from the open
+window fluttering gayly in her locks. She was weak yet, but there was
+promise of life in her slowly brightening eye, and from the language of
+the smile which now and then disturbed the lines of her proud lips,
+there was hope of happiness in the heart which but two short days before
+had turned from life in despair.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it was not a perfect hope, or the smiles would have been deeper and
+more frequent. She had held a long talk with Frank, but he had not
+touched upon a certain vital question, perhaps because he felt she had
+not yet the strength to argue it. He was her lover and anticipated
+marrying her, but he had not said whether he expected her to disobey her
+father and leave her home. She felt that he must expect this; she also
+felt that he had the right to do so; but when she thought of yielding to
+his wishes, the old horror returned to her, and a suffocating feeling of
+fear, as if it would never be allowed. The dead have such a hold upon
+us. As the pleasure of living<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> and the ecstasy of love began to make
+themselves felt again in her weakened frame, she could not refrain from
+asking herself by what right she contemplated taking up the joys of
+life, who had not only forfeited them by her attempt at suicide, but who
+had been cursed by a father and doomed by his will to perpetual
+imprisonment. Had he not said, "Let not hatred, let not <i>love</i>, lead you
+to leave these doors"? How then presume to think of it or dream that she
+could be happy with such remembrances as hers ever springing up to
+blight her life? She wished, oh! how she wished, that Frank would not
+ask her to leave her home. Yet she knew this was weakness, and that
+soon, at the next interview, perhaps, she would have to dash his hopes
+by speaking of her fears. And so Hermione was not perfectly happy.</p>
+
+<p>Emma, on the contrary, was like a bird loosed from a cage. She sang,
+yes, sang as she flitted up and down the stairs, and once Hermione
+started and blushed with surprise as her voice in a merry peal of
+laughter came from the garden. Such a sound had not been heard in that
+house for a year; such a sound seemed an anomaly there. Yet how sweet it
+was, and how it seemed to lift the shadows.</p>
+
+<p>There was another person who started as this unusual note of merriment
+disturbed the silence of the garden. It was Huckins, who was slowly
+walking up and down beneath the poplars. He was waiting for Doris, and
+this sound went through him like an arrow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>
+"Laughter," he muttered, shaking his trembling hands in menace towards
+her. "That is a sound I must crush. It speaks too much of hope, and hope
+means the loss to me of all for which I have schemed for years. Why
+didn't that poison work? Why did I let that doctor come? I might have
+locked the door against him and left them to hunt for the key. But I was
+afraid; that Etheridge is so ready to suspect me."</p>
+
+<p>He turned and walked away from the house. He dreaded to hear that
+silvery sound again.</p>
+
+<p>"If she had died, as I had every reason to suspect after such a dose,
+Emma would have followed her in a day. And then who could have kept me
+out of my property? Not Etheridge, for all his hatred and suspicion of
+me." He shook his hand again in menace and moved farther down the path.</p>
+
+<p>As his small black figure disappeared up the walk Doris appeared at the
+kitchen door. She also looked cheerful, yet there was a shade of anxiety
+in her expression as she glanced up the walk.</p>
+
+<p>"He says he is going away," she murmured. "The shock of Miss Hermione's
+illness was too much for him, poor man! and he does not seem to consider
+how lonesome I will be. If only he had asked me to go with him! But then
+I could not have left the young ladies; not while they stick to this old
+horror of a house. What is it, Miss Emma?"</p>
+
+<p>"A four-leaved clover! one, two, <i>three</i> of them," cried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> her young
+mistress from the lawn at the side of the house. "We are in luck! Times
+are going to change for us all, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"The best luck we can have is to quit this house forever," answered
+Doris, with a boldness unusual on her lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," returned Emma, with her spirits a little dashed, "I cannot say
+about that, but we will try and be happy in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Happy in it!" repeated Doris, but this time to herself. "I can never be
+happy in it, now I have had my dreams of pleasure abroad." And she left
+the kitchen door and began her slow walk towards the end of the garden.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the place where Huckins waited for her, she stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Good afternoon," said she. "Pleasant strolling under these poplars."</p>
+
+<p>He grunted and shook his head slowly to and fro.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing is very pleasant here," said he. "I have stood it as long as I
+can. My nieces are good girls, but I have failed to make them see
+reason, and I must leave it now to these two lovers of theirs to do what
+they can."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you think they will succeed? That the young ladies will be
+influenced by them to break up their old habits?"</p>
+
+<p>This was what Huckins did think, and what was driving him to extremity,
+but he veiled his real feelings very successfully under a doleful shake
+of the head.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+"I do not know," said he. "I fear not. The Cavanagh blood is very
+obstinate, very obstinate indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean," cried Doris, "that they won't leave the house to be
+married? That they will go on living here in spite of these two young
+gentlemen who seem to be so fond of them?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do," said he, with every appearance of truth. "I don't think anything
+but fire will ever drive them out of this house."</p>
+
+<p>It was quietly said, almost mournfully, but it caused Doris to give a
+sudden start. Looking at him intently, she repeated "Fire?" and seemed
+to quake at the word, even while she rolled it like a sweet morsel under
+her tongue.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, but did not further press the subject. He had caught her look
+from the corner of his eye, and did not think it worth while to change
+his attitude of innocence.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish," he insinuated, "there was another marriage which could take
+place."</p>
+
+<p>"Another marriage?" she simpered.</p>
+
+<p>"I have too much money for one to spend," said he. "I wish I knew of a
+good woman to share it."</p>
+
+<p>Doris, before whose eyes the most dazzling dreams of wealth and
+consequence at once flashed, drooped her stout figure and endeavored to
+look languishing.</p>
+
+<p>"If it were not for my duty to the young ladies," sighed she.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+"Yes, yes," said he, "you must never leave them."</p>
+
+<p>She turned, she twisted, she tortured her hands in her endeavor to keep
+down the evidences of her desire and her anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"If&mdash;if this house should be blown down in a storm or&mdash;or a fire should
+consume it as you say, they would have to go elsewhere, have to marry
+these young men, have to be happy in spite of themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"But what cyclones ever come here?" he asked, with his mockery of a
+smile. "Or where could a fire spring from in a house guarded by a
+Doris?"</p>
+
+<p>She was trembling so she could not answer. "Come out here again at six
+o'clock," said she; "they will miss me if I stay too long now. Oh, sir,
+how I wish I could see those two poor loves happy again!"</p>
+
+<p>"How I wish you could!" said he, and there was nothing in his tone for
+her ears but benevolence.</p>
+
+<p>As Huckins crept from the garden-gate he ran against Frank, who was on
+his way to the station.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir," he exclaimed, cringing, "I am sure I beg your pardon. Going
+up to town, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I advise you to do the same," quoth the other, turning upon
+him sharply. "The Misses Cavanagh are not well enough at present to
+entertain visitors."</p>
+
+<p>"You are no doubt right," returned Huckins with his meekest and most
+treacherous aspect. "It is odd now, isn't it, but I was just going to
+say that it was time I left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> them, much as I love the poor dears. They
+seem so happy now, and their prospects are so bright, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so; they have had trouble enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Um, um, they will go to Flatbush, I suppose, and I&mdash;poor old outcast
+that I am&mdash;may rub my hands in poverty."</p>
+
+<p>He looked so cringing, and yet so saturnine, that Frank was tempted to
+turn on his heel and leave him with his innuendoes unanswered. But his
+better spirit prevailing, he said, after a moment's pregnant silence:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the young ladies will go to Flatbush, and the extent of the
+poverty you endure will depend upon your good behavior. I do not think
+either of your nieces would wish to see you starve."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, poor dears, they are very kind, and the least I can do is to
+leave them. Old age and misery are not fit companions for youth and
+hope, are they, Mr. Etheridge?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have already intimated what I thought about that."</p>
+
+<p>"So you have, so you have. You are such a lawyer, Mr. Etheridge, such an
+admirable lawyer!"</p>
+
+<p>Frank, disgusted, attempted to walk on, but Huckins followed close after
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"You do not like me," he said. "You think because I was violent once
+that I envy these sweet girls their rights. But you don't know me, Mr.
+Etheridge; you don't know my good heart. Since I have seen them I have
+felt very willing to give up my claims, they are such nice girls, and
+will be so kind to their poor old uncle."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>
+Frank gave him a look as much as to say he would see about that, but he
+said nothing beyond a short "What train do you take?"</p>
+
+<p>As Huckins had not thought seriously of taking any, he faltered for a
+moment and then blurted out:</p>
+
+<p>"I shall get off at eight. I must say good-by to the young ladies, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>Frank, who did not recognize this <i>must</i>, looked at his watch and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You have just a half hour to get the train with me; you had better take
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Huckins, a little startled, looked doubtfully at the lawyer and
+hesitated. He did not wish to arouse his antagonism or to add to his
+suspicion; indeed it was necessary to allay both. He therefore, after a
+moment of silent contemplation of the severe and inscrutable face before
+him, broke into a short wheedling laugh, and saying, "I had no idea my
+company was so agreeable," promised to make what haste he could and
+catch the six o'clock train if possible.</p>
+
+<p>But of course it was not possible. He had his second interview with
+Doris to hold, and after that was over there were the young ladies to
+see and impress with the disinterested state of his feelings. So that it
+was eight o'clock before he was ready to leave the town. But he did
+leave it at that hour, though it must have been with some intention of
+returning, or why did he carry away with him the key of the side-door of
+the old Cavanagh mansion?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
+<a name="xxx" id="xxx"></a><span class="sub3">XXX.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">THE FINAL TERROR.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A week</span> went by and Frank returned to Marston full of hope and definite
+intention. He had notified the Surrogate of the discovery of the real
+heirs to the Wakeham estate, and he had engaged workmen to put in order
+the old house in Flatbush against the arrival of the youthful claimants.
+All that there now remained to do was to induce the young ladies to
+leave the accursed walls within which they had so long immured
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar was awaiting him at the station, and together they walked up the
+street.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it all right?" asked Frank. "Have you seen them daily?"</p>
+
+<p>"Every day but to-day. You would hardly know Emma."</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;and Hermione?"</p>
+
+<p>"She shows her feelings less, but she is evidently happier than she has
+been for a year."</p>
+
+<p>"And her health?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is completely re-established."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you kept your word? Have you talked of everything but what we
+propose to do?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+"I never break my word."</p>
+
+<p>"And they? Have they said anything about leaving the house, or of going
+to Flatbush, or&mdash;or&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No; they have preserved as close a silence as ourselves. I imagine they
+do not think it proper to speak till we have spoken first."</p>
+
+<p>"It may be; but I should have been pleased if you could have told me
+that Hermione had been seen walking outside the gate."</p>
+
+<p>"You would?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I dread the struggle which I now see before me. It is the first
+step which costs, and I was in hopes she would have taken this in my
+absence."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it would have prevented argument. But perhaps you will not have to
+argue. She may be merely waiting for the support of your arm."</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever she is waiting for, she takes her first step down the street
+to-night. What a new world it will open before her!" And Frank
+unconsciously quickened his pace.</p>
+
+<p>Edgar followed with a less impatient step but with fully as much
+determination. Pride was mingled with his love, and pride demanded that
+his future wife should not be held in any bonds forged by the obstinacy
+or the superstitious fears of a wayward sister.</p>
+
+<p>They expected to see the girls at the windows, but they found the
+shutters closed and the curtains drawn. Indeed, the whole house had a
+funereal look which staggered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> Frank and made even Edgar stare in
+astonishment. "It was not like this yesterday," he declared. "Do they
+not expect you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if my telegram was delivered."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see at once what is the matter."</p>
+
+<p>It was Doris who came to the door. When her eyes fell upon the two young
+men, especially upon Frank, her whole countenance changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Etheridge, is it you?" she cried. "I thought&mdash;I understood&mdash;&mdash;"
+She did not say what, but her relieved manner made quite an impression
+on Frank, although it was, of course, impossible for him to suspect what
+a dangerous deed she had been contemplating at that very moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Are the young ladies well?" he asked, in his haste to be relieved from
+his anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, quite well," she admitted, somewhat mysteriously. "They are in
+there," she added, pointing to the parlor on the left.</p>
+
+<p>Frank and Edgar looked at each other. They had always before this been
+received in the cheerful sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"If something is not soon done to make Miss Hermione leave the house,"
+Doris whispered passionately to Frank as she passed him, "there will be
+worse trouble here than there has ever been before."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" he demanded, gliding swiftly after her and catching
+her by the arm just as she reached the back hall.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+"Go in and see," said she, "and when you come out tell me what success
+you have had. For if you fail, then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then what&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Providence must interpose to help you."</p>
+
+<p>She was looking straight at him, but that glance told him nothing. He
+thought her words strange and her conduct strange, but everything was
+strange in this house, and not having the key to her thoughts, the word
+<i>Providence</i> did not greatly startle him.</p>
+
+<p>"I will see what I can do," said he, and returning to Edgar, who had
+remained standing by the parlor-door, he preceded him into that gloomy
+apartment.</p>
+
+<p>The girls were both there, seated, as Frank perceived with a certain
+sinking of the heart, in the farthest and dimmest corner of this most
+forbidding place. Emma was looking towards them, but Hermione sat with
+downcast eyes and an air of discouragement about her Frank found it hard
+to behold unmoved.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione," said he, advancing into the middle of the room, "have you no
+welcome for me?"</p>
+
+<p>Trembling with sudden feeling, she rose slowly to her feet; and her eyes
+lifted themselves painfully to his.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me," she entreated, "I have had such a shock."</p>
+
+<p>"Shock?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Look at my head! look at my hair!"</p>
+
+<p>She bent forward; he hastened to her side and glanced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> at the rich locks
+towards which she pointed. As he did so, he recoiled in sudden awe and
+confusion. "What does it mean?" he asked. There were gray spots in those
+dusky tresses, spots which had never been there before.</p>
+
+<p>"The fingers of a ghost have touched me," she whispered. "Wherever they
+fell, a mark has been left, and those marks sear my brain."</p>
+
+<p>And then Frank noticed, with inward horror, that the spots were regular
+and ran in a distinct circle about her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Hermione," he cried, "has your imagination carried you so far? Ghost?
+Do you believe in ghosts?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in anything <i>now</i>," she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>Frightened by her shudders and dazed by words he found it impossible to
+treat lightly with those mysterious marks before him, Frank turned for
+relief to Emma, who had risen also and stood a few steps behind them,
+with her face bent downward though the Doctor pressed close at her side.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you understand her?" said Frank.</p>
+
+<p>With an effort Emma moved forward. "It has frightened <i>me</i>," she
+whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"What has? Let us hear all about it," demanded the Doctor, speaking for
+the first time.</p>
+
+<p>Hermione gave him a wistful glance. "We are wretched girls," said she.
+"If you expected to relieve us from the curse, it is impossible; my
+father will not have it so."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>
+"Your father!" quoth both of the young men, appalled not at the
+superstition thus evinced, but at the effect they saw it was likely to
+have upon her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you think you saw <i>him</i>?" added Frank. "When? Where?"</p>
+
+<p>"In the laboratory&mdash;last night. I did not see him but I felt him; felt
+him strike my head with his fingers and drag me back. It was worse than
+death! I shall never get over it."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me the particulars; explain the whole matter to me. Imagination
+plays us ghastly tricks sometimes. Were you alone? Was it late?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't I come here this morning?" cried Edgar.</p>
+
+<p>"It was long after midnight. I had received your letter and could not
+sleep, so I went into the laboratory, as we often do, to walk. It was
+the first time I had been there since I was ill, and it made me tremble
+to cross its hated threshold, but I had a question to decide, and I
+thought I ought to decide it there. But I trembled, as I say, and my
+hand shook so as I opened the door that I was more disturbed than
+astonished when my light went suddenly out, leaving me in total
+darkness. As I was by this time inside the laboratory I did not turn
+back to relight my candle, for the breeze I presently felt blowing
+through the room convinced me that this would be idle, and that till the
+window was shut, which let in such a stream of air, any attempt to bring
+a light into the room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> would be attended by the same results. I
+therefore moved rapidly across the room to the window, and was about to
+close it when I was suddenly arrested, and my arms were paralyzed by the
+feeling of a presence in the room behind my back. It was so vivid, so
+clear to my thoughts, that I seemed to see it, though I did not turn
+from the window. It was that of an old man&mdash;my father's,&mdash;and the menace
+with which the arms were lifted froze the blood in my veins.</p>
+
+<p>"I had merited it; I had been near to breaking his command. I had
+meditated, if I had not decided, upon a sudden breaking away from the
+bondage he had imposed upon me; I had been on the point of daring his
+curse, and now it was to fall upon me. I felt the justice of his
+presence and fell, as if stricken, on my knees.</p>
+
+<p>"The silence that followed may have been short, and it may have been
+long. I was almost unconscious from fright, remorse, and apprehension.
+But when I did rouse and did summon courage to turn and crawl from the
+room, I was conscious of the thing following me, and would have
+screamed, but that I had no voice. Suddenly I gave a rush; but the
+moment I started forward I felt those fingers fall upon my head and draw
+me back, and when I did escape it was with a force that carried me
+beyond the door and then laid me senseless on the floor; for I am no
+longer strong, Mr. Etheridge, and the hatred of the dead is worse than
+that of the living."</p>
+
+<p>"You had a dream, a fearful dream, and these marks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> prove its
+vividness," declared Edgar. "You must not let your life be ruined by any
+such fantasies."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that it had been a dream," moaned Hermione, "but it was more than
+that, as we can prove."</p>
+
+<p>"Prove?"</p>
+
+<p>"Come to the laboratory," cried Emma, suddenly. "There is something we
+want to show you there; something which I saw early this morning when I
+went in to close the window Hermione did not shut."</p>
+
+<p>The young men, startled, did not wait for a second bidding; they
+followed the two girls immediately up-stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"No one has been up these stairs but Doris and ourselves since you went
+down them a week ago," declared Hermione, as they entered the
+laboratory. "Now look at the lid of the mahogany desk&mdash;my father's
+desk."</p>
+
+<p>They all went over to it, and Emma, pointing, seemed to ask what they
+thought of it. They did not know what to think, for there on its even
+surface they beheld words written with the point of a finger in the
+thick dust which covered it; and the words were legible and ran thus:</p>
+
+<p>"In your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in your remorse
+see that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for hatred, dare to cross
+the threshold, or I will denounce you in the grave where I shall be
+gone, and my curse shall be upon you."</p>
+
+<p>"My father's words to me in the dreadful hour of his death," whispered
+Hermione. "You may remember<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> them, Mr. Etheridge; they were in the
+letter I wrote you."</p>
+
+<p>Frank did remember them quite well, and for a moment he, like Edgar,
+stood a little dazed and shaken by a mystery he could not immediately
+fathom. But only for a moment. He was too vigorous, and his
+determination was too great, for him to be daunted long by even an
+appearance of the supernatural. So leaping forward, with a bright laugh,
+he drew his hand across the menacing words, and, effacing them at once,
+cried with a confident look at Hermione:</p>
+
+<p>"So will I erase them from your heart if you only will let me,
+Hermione."</p>
+
+<p>But she pointed with an awful look at her hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you take these spots out also? Till you can, do not expect me to
+follow the beck of any hand which would lead me to defy my father's
+curse by leaving this house."</p>
+
+<p>At this declaration both men turned pale, and unconsciously moved
+towards each other with a single thought. Had they looked at the door,
+they would have seen the inquisitive face of Doris disappear towards the
+staircase, with that air of determination which only ends in action. But
+they only saw each other and the purpose which was slowly developing in
+each of their minds.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Hermione," urged Frank, "this is no place for you. If you are
+going to stay in this house, I am going to stay with you; but this room
+is prohibited; you shall never enter it again."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+He did not know how truly he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said Edgar, in his turn, to Emma, "we have had all the horrors
+we want; now let us go down-stairs and have a little cheerful talk in
+the sitting-room."</p>
+
+<p>And Emma yielded; but Hermione hung back.</p>
+
+<p>"I dread to go down," said she; "this seems the only place in which I
+can say farewell."</p>
+
+<p>But Frank was holding out his hand, and she gradually gave in to its
+seduction and followed him down-stairs into the sitting-room, which was
+fast growing dusky.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said he, without heeding Emma and the Doctor, who had retreated
+to one of the farther windows, "if you wish to say farewell, I will
+listen to you; but before you speak, hear what I have to say. In a
+certain box which came with me this day from New York, and which is now
+at Mr. Lothrop's, there lies a gown of snowy satin made with enough lace
+to hide any deficiencies it may have in size or fit. With this gown is a
+veil snowy as itself, and on the veil there lies a wreath of orange
+blossoms, while under the whole are piled garments after garments,
+chosen with loving care by the only sister I have in the world, for the
+one woman in that world I wish to make my wife. If you love me,
+Hermione, if you think my devotion a true one, fly from this nest of
+hideous memories and superstitious fears, and in that place where you
+are already expected, put on these garments I have brought you, and with
+them a crown of love, joy, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> hope, which will mean a farewell, not to
+me, but to the old life forever."</p>
+
+<p>But Hermione, swaying aside from him, cried: "I cannot, I cannot; the
+rafters would fall if I tried to pass the door."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Frank, growing in height and glowing with purpose, "they
+shall fall first on me." And seizing her in his arms, he raised her to
+his breast and fled with her out of the room and out of the house, her
+wild shriek of mingled terror and love trailing faintly after them till
+he stopped on the farther side of the gate, which softly closed behind
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Emma, who was taken as much by surprise as her sister had been, looked
+at the empty place where Hermione had so lately stood, and cowered low,
+as if the terrible loneliness of the house, now <i>she</i> was gone, crushed
+upon her like a weight. Then she seized Edgar by the hand and ran out
+also; and Edgar pulled the great door to behind them, and the Cavanagh
+mansion, for the first time in a year, was a shell without inmates, a
+body without soul.</p>
+
+<p>They found Hermione standing in the dark shadows cast here in the street
+by the overhanging trees. Frank's arm was about her and she looked both
+dazed and pleased.</p>
+
+<p>When she saw Emma she started.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it releases you too," she cried; "that is happiness. I did not like
+to see you suffer for my sins." Then she drooped a little, then she
+looked up, and a burden<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> seemed to roll away from her heart. "The
+rafters did not fall," she murmured, "and you, Frank, will keep all
+spectres away from me, won't you? He can never reach me when I am by
+your side."</p>
+
+<p>"Never, never," was the glad reply. And Frank began to draw her gently
+up the street. "It is but a step," said he, "to Mr. Lothrop's; no one
+will ever notice that you are without a hat."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You are expected," he whispered. "You are never to go back into your
+old home again."</p>
+
+<p>Again he did not know how truly he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Emma, Emma," appealed Hermione, "shall I do this thing, without any
+preparation, any thought, anything but my love and gratitude to make it
+a true bridal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Hermione, in making yourself happy, you make me so; therefore I am
+but a poor adviser."</p>
+
+<p>"What, will you be married too, to-night, at the minister's house with
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear, but soon, very soon, as soon as you can give me a home to be
+married in."</p>
+
+<p>"Then let us make her happy," cried Hermione. "It is the only reparation
+I can offer for all I have made her suffer."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>
+<a name="xxxi" id="xxxi"></a><span class="sub3">XXXI.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">AN EVENTFUL QUARTER OF AN HOUR.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Edgar closed the front door of the Cavanagh mansion behind himself
+and Emma, the noise he made was slight, and yet it was heard by ears
+that were listening for it in the remote recesses of the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"The gentlemen are gone," decided Doris, without any hesitation. "They
+could not move Miss Hermione from her resolves, and I did not think they
+could. Nothing can move her but fire, and fire there shall be, and that
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Stealing towards the front of the house, she listened. All was quiet.
+She instantly concluded that the young ladies were in the parlor, and
+glided back to a certain closet under the stairs, into which she peered
+with a satisfied air. "Plenty of stuff there," she commented, and
+shivered slightly as she thought of putting a candle to the combustible
+pile before her. Shutting the door, she crept to another spot where lay
+a huge pile of shavings, and again she nodded with satisfaction at the
+sight. Finally, she went into the shed, and when she came back she
+walked like one who sees the way clear to her purposes.</p>
+
+<p>"I promised Mr. Huckins I would not start the blaze<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> till after
+midnight," said she almost audibly, as she passed again towards the
+front. "He was so afraid if the fire got started early that the
+neighbors would put it out before any harm was done. But I haven't the
+nerve to do such a thing with the young ladies up-stairs. They might not
+get down safely, or I might not have the power to wake them. No, I will
+fire it now, while they are in the parlor, and trust to its going like
+tinder, as it will. Won't the young gentlemen thank me, and won't the
+young ladies do the same, when they get over the shock of being suddenly
+thrown upon the world."</p>
+
+<p>Chuckling softly to herself, she looked up-stairs and finally ran
+quietly up. With a woman's thoughtfulness she remembered certain
+articles which she felt were precious to the young ladies. To gather
+these together would be the work of a moment, and it would ease her
+conscience. Going first to Hermione's room, she threw such objects as
+she considered valuable into a sheet, and tied them up. Then she tossed
+the bundle thus made out of one of the side windows. Running to Emma's
+room, she repeated her operations; and letting her own things go,
+hastened down-stairs and went again into the kitchen. When she reissued
+it was with a lighted candle in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime from the poplar walk two eyes were gazing with restless
+eagerness upon the house. They belonged to Huckins, who, unknown to
+Etheridge, unknown to Doris even, had returned to Marston for the
+purpose of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> watching the development of his deadly game. He had stolen
+into the garden and was surveying the place, not so much from any
+expectation of fire at this hour, as because his whole interest was
+centred in the house and he could not keep his eyes from it.</p>
+
+<p>But suddenly, as he looks, he detects something amiss, and starting
+forward, with many muttered exclamations, he draws nearer and nearer to
+the house, which he presently enters by means of the key he draws from
+his pocket. As he does so, a faint smell of smoke comes to his nostrils,
+causing him to mutter: "She is three hours too soon; what does she mean
+by it?"</p>
+
+<p>The door by which he had entered was at the end of a side hall. He found
+the house dark, but he was so accustomed to it by this time, that he
+felt no hesitancy as to his steps. He went at first to the sitting-room
+and looked in; there was no one there. Then he proceeded to the parlor,
+which was also empty. "Good," thought he, "they are up-stairs"; and he
+slid with his quiet step to the staircase, up which he went like the
+ghost or spectre which he had perhaps simulated the night before. There
+was a door at the top of the first landing, and he had some thoughts of
+simply locking this, and escaping. But, he said to himself, it would be
+much more satisfactory to first make sure that the two girls were really
+above, before he locked them in; so he crept up farther, and finally
+came to Hermione's room. The door was shut, but from the light which
+shone through the keyhole (a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> light which Doris had left there in her
+haste and trepidation), he judged Hermione to be within, so he softly
+turned the key that was in the lock, and glided away to Emma's
+apartment. This was also closed, but there was a light there, also from
+the same cause, so there being no key visible he drew a heavy piece of
+furniture across the doorway, and fled back to the stairs. As he reached
+them, a blinding gust of smoke swept up through the crevices beneath his
+feet, but he thought he saw his way clearly, and rushed for the landing.
+But just as he reached it, the door&mdash;the door he had intended to close
+behind him&mdash;shut sharply in his face, and he found himself imprisoned.
+With a shriek, he dashed against it; but it was locked; and just as he
+staggered upright again from his violent efforts to batter it down, a
+red-hot flame shot up through a gap in the staircase and played about
+his feet. He yelled, and dashed up the stairs. If he were to suffer for
+his own crime, he would at least have companions in his agony. Calling
+upon Emma and Hermione, he rushed to the piece of furniture with which
+he had barred the former's apartment, and frantically drew it aside. The
+door remained shut; there was no agonized one within to force it open
+the moment the pressure against it was relieved. Stupefied, he staggered
+away and ran up the twisted staircase to Hermione's room. Perhaps they
+were here, perhaps they were both here. But all was silent within, and
+when he had entered and searched the space before him, even beneath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> and
+behind the curtains of the bed for its expected occupant, and found no
+one there, he uttered such a cry as that house had never listened to,
+not even when it echoed to its master's final yell of rage and despair.</p>
+
+<p>Doris meanwhile was suffering her own punishment below. When she had
+lighted the three several piles she had prepared, she fled into the
+front of the house to spread the alarm and insure the safety of her
+young mistresses. Passing the staircase she had one quick thought of the
+likelihood there might be of Hermione or Emma dashing up those stairs in
+an endeavor to save some of their effects, so she quietly locked the
+door above in order to prevent them. But when she had done this she
+heard a shriek, and, startled, she was about to unlock it again when a
+vivid flame shot up between her and the door making any such attempt
+impossible. Aghast with terror, fearing that by some error of
+calculation she had shut her young ladies up-stairs after all, she went
+shrieking their names through the lower rooms and halls, now filling
+with smoke and lurid with shooting jets of flame. As no response came
+and she could find no one in any of the rooms, her terror grew to frenzy
+and she would have dashed up-stairs at the risk of her life. But it was
+too late; the stairs had already fallen, and the place was one volcano
+of seething flame.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>
+<a name="xxxii" id="xxxii"></a><span class="sub3">XXXII.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="sub4">THE SPECTRE OF THE LABORATORY.</span></h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Had</span> Hermione been allowed time to think, she might have drawn back from
+such a sudden marriage. But Frank, who recognized this possibility,
+urged her with gentle speed down the street, and never ceased his
+persuasions till they stood at the minister's door. Mrs. Lothrop, who
+had a heart for romance, opened it, and seeing the blushing face and
+somewhat dishevelled appearance of Hermione, she cast one comprehending
+look at Frank, and drew them in joyfully.</p>
+
+<p>"You are to be married, are you not?" she asked, welcoming the whole
+four with the gayest of bows. "I congratulate you, dear, and will take
+you right away to my best room, where you will find your box and
+everything else you may need. I am so glad you decided to come here
+instead of having us go to you. It is so pleasant and so friendly and
+the Doctor does so dread to go out evenings now."</p>
+
+<p>Small chatter is ofttimes our salvation. Under this little lady's fire
+of bright talk Hermione lost the tragic feelings of months and seemed to
+awake to the genialities of life. Turning her grand head towards the
+smiling little woman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> she let her own happiness shine from the corners
+of her mouth, and then following the other's lead, allowed herself to be
+taken to a cosy chintz-furnished room whose home-like aspect struck warm
+upon her heart and completed the work of her rejuvenation.</p>
+
+<p>Emma, who was close behind her, laughed merrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a chrysalis of a bride," cried she. "Where are the wings with
+which to turn her into a butterfly?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lothrop showed them a great box, and then left them. Emma, lifting
+the lid, glanced shyly at Hermione, who blushed scarlet. Such a lovely
+array of satin, lace, and flowers! To these girls, who had denied
+themselves everything and been denied everything, it was a glimpse of
+Paradise. As one beautiful garment after another was taken out,
+Hermione's head drooped lower in her delight and the love it inspired,
+till at last the tears came and she wept for a few minutes
+unconstrainedly. When this mood had passed, she gave herself up to
+Emma's eager fingers, and was dressed in her bridal garments.</p>
+
+<p>The clock was striking ten when Frank's impatience was rewarded by the
+first glimpse of his bride. She came into the room with Emma and Mrs.
+Lothrop, and her beauty, heightened by her feelings to the utmost, was
+such as to fill him with triumph and delight.</p>
+
+<p>To Edgar it was a revelation, for always before, he had seen the scar
+before he did her; but now he was compelled to see her first, for the
+scar was hidden under fold upon fold of lace.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>
+"No wonder Frank is daft over her," thought he, "if she always looks
+like this to him."</p>
+
+<p>As for Frank, he bowed with all his soul to the radiant vision, and
+then, leading her up to Mr. Lothrop, awaited the sacred words which were
+to make them one. As they were being uttered, strange noises broke out
+in the street, and the cry of "Fire! fire!" rang out; but if the bride
+and bridegroom heard the ominous word they did not betray the fact, and
+the ceremony proceeded. It was soon over, and Frank turned to kiss his
+wife; but just as Emma advanced with her congratulations, the front door
+burst open and a neighbor's voice was heard to cry in great excitement:</p>
+
+<p>"The Cavanagh house is burning, and we are all afraid that the girls
+have perished in the flames."</p>
+
+<p>It was Emma who gave the one shriek that responded to these words.
+Hermione seemed like one frozen. Edgar, dashing to the door, looked out,
+and came slowly back.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is burning," said he. "Emma will have to go with you to New
+York."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a judgment," moaned Hermione, clinging to Frank, who perhaps felt
+a touch of superstitious awe himself. "It is a judgment upon me for
+forgetting; for being happy; for accepting a deliverance I should not
+have desired."</p>
+
+<p>But at these words Frank regained his composure.</p>
+
+<p>"No," corrected he, "it is your deliverance made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> complete. Without it
+you might have had compunctions and ideas of returning to a place to
+which you felt yourself condemned. Now you never can. It is a merciful
+Providence."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go and see the old house burn," she whispered. "If it is a
+funeral pyre of the past, let us watch the dying embers. Perhaps my
+fears will vanish with them."</p>
+
+<p>He did not refuse her; so Emma relieved her of her veil and threw about
+her a long cloak, and together they stepped into the street. The glare
+that struck their faces made them shrink, but they soon overcame the
+first shock and hastened on.</p>
+
+<p>The town was in a tumult, but they saw nothing save the flaming skeleton
+of their home, with the gaunt outlines of the poplars shining vividly in
+the scarlet glow.</p>
+
+<p>As they drew near to it the front of the house fell in, and Hermione,
+with a shriek, pointed to the corner where the laboratory had been.</p>
+
+<p>"My father! my father! See! see! he is there! He is denouncing me! Look
+at his lifted arms! It <i>is</i> a judgment, it is&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her words trailed off in choking horror. They all looked, and they all
+saw the figure of an old man writhing against a background of flame. Was
+it a spectre? Was it the restless ghost of the old professor showing
+itself for the last time in the place of his greatest sin and suffering?
+Even Edgar was silent, and Frank refused to say, while the girls,
+sinking upon their knees with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> inarticulate moans and prayers, seemed to
+beg for mercy and cry against this retribution, when suddenly Hermione
+felt herself clasped in two vigorous arms, and a voice exclaimed in the
+husky accents of great joy:</p>
+
+<p>"You are here! You are here! You are not burned! O my dear young
+mistresses, my dear, dear young mistresses!"</p>
+
+<p>Hermione, pushing the weeping Doris back, pointed again towards the
+toppling structure, and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see who is there? My father, Doris, my father! See how he
+beckons and waves, see&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Doris, startled, gave a cry in her turn:</p>
+
+<p>"It is Mr. Huckins! O save&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the words were lost in the sudden crash of falling walls. The scene
+of woe was gone, and the dayspring of hope had risen for the two girls.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="box5">
+<p class="tp"><span class="illus"><i>A Selection from the<br />
+Catalogue of</i></span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="pub1">G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 66px;">
+<img src="images/acorn.png" width="66" height="57" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="tp"><span class="illus">Complete Catalogue sent<br />
+on application</span></p>
+
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<h2>Works by Anna Katharine Green</h2>
+
+<hr class="hr4" />
+
+<p class="noi nb"><strong>THE LEAVENWORTH CASE.</strong> A Lawyer's Story.</p>
+<p class="nt nb"><span class="fltleft">New Illustrated Edition. Cr. 8vo.</span> <span class="fltright">$1.50</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear nt">"She has worked up a <i>cause c�l�bre</i> with a fertility of device and
+ingenuity of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar Allan
+Poe."&mdash;<i>Christian Union</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">".. She has never succeeded better in baffling the reader."&mdash;<i>Boston
+Christian Register</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi nb"><strong>THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES.</strong> A Story of New York Life.</p>
+<p class="nt nb"><span class="fltleft">16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear nt">"'The Sword of Damocles' is a book of great power, which far surpasses
+either of its predecessors from her pen, and places her high among
+American writers. The plot is complicated and is managed adroitly... In
+the delineation of characters she has shown both delicacy and
+vigor."&mdash;<i>Congregationalist</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>X. Y. Z. and 7 TO 12: DETECTIVE STORIES.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>,</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"Well written and extremely exciting and captivating... She is a
+perfect genius in the construction of a plot."&mdash;<i>N. Y. Commercial
+Advertiser</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>HAND AND RING.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"It is a tribute to the author's genius that she never tires and never
+loses her readers... It moves on clean and healthy.... It is worked out
+powerfully and skilfully."&mdash;N. Y. Independent.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting story. The readers are
+held spell-bound until the last page."&mdash;<i>Cincinnati Commercial</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>THE MILL MYSTERY.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span><br /></p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>THE HOUSE OF THE WHISPERING PINES.</strong><br />
+Cr. 8vo. Colored Frontispiece. Cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1.50</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"As good as 'The Leavenworth Case.'"&mdash;<i>N. Y. Globe</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>THE OLD STONE HOUSE, AND OTHER STORIES.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>,
+cloth</span> <span class="fltright">75 cents</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"It is a bundle of quite cleverly constructed pieces of fiction, with
+which an idle hour may be pleasantly passed."&mdash;<i>N. Y. Independent.</i></p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY.</strong> With frontispiece. 16<sup>o</sup>,
+cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"'Cynthia Wakeham's Money' is a story notable even among the many
+vigorous works of Anna Katharine Green."&mdash;<i>New York Sun.</i></p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>MARKED "PERSONAL."</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"The ingenious plot is built up with all the skill of the writer of 'The
+Leavenworth Case' to the very last chapter, which contains the
+surprising solutions of several mysteries."</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>MISS HURD: AN ENIGMA.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"A strong and interesting novel in an entirely new field of romance."</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK.</strong> 32<sup>o</sup>, limp
+cloth</span> <span class="fltright">50 cents</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"The story is entertainingly told..."&mdash;<i>Cincinnati Tribune</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>DR. IZARD.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"Those who have read her other books will not need to be urged to read
+this; they will be eager to do so, and we assure them a very interesting
+story."&mdash;<i>Boston Times</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="clear">"Startling in its ingenuity and its wonderful plot."&mdash;<i>Buffalo
+Enquirer</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="fltleft"><strong>LOST MAN'S LANE.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span><br /></p>
+
+<p class="noi clear"><span class="fltleft"><strong>AGATHA WEBB.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 25</span><br /></p>
+
+<p class="noi clear"><span class="fltleft"><strong>ONE OF MY SONS.</strong> 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth, illustrated</span> <span class="fltright">$1 50</span><br /></p>
+
+<p class="noi clear"><span class="fltleft"><strong>THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE, AND OTHER POEMS.<br /></strong>
+16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span></p>
+
+<p class="noi clear"><span class="fltleft"><strong>RISIFI'S DAUGHTER.</strong> A Drama. 16<sup>o</sup>, cloth</span> <span class="fltright">$1 00</span><br /></p>
+
+<p class="center clear">G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="title">Who?</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="author">By Elizabeth Kent</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="illus">Author of "The House Opposite"</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="illus"><i>Cr. 8vo. Frontispiece in Color by John Cassel<br />
+$1.25 net. By mail, $1.40</i></span></p>
+
+<p>A more thrilling detective story than "Who?" has seldom appeared. Not
+only does it deal with the story of a crime such as the ablest detective
+would find it difficult to solve, but there is an added mystery
+concerning the identity of one of the principal suspects, regarding
+which the reader's opinion will change a dozen times before arriving at
+the truth. Every page teems with incidents, forming a succession of
+dramatic scenes that will keep the reader's interest at white heat
+throughout.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr4" />
+<p class="center"><span class="pub1">G. P. Putnam's Sons</span><br />
+<span class="fltleft pub2">New York</span> <span class="fltright pub2">London</span></p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="title2">The Adventures of Miss Gregory</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="pub1">By Perceval Gibbon</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="illus"><i>12 <sup>o</sup>. With 8 Illustrations. $1.35 net By mail, $1.50</i></span></p>
+
+<p>The rousing volume of dare-devil enterprise that Perceval Gibbon has
+written is a book full of freshness and surprise. Miss Gregory knocks
+about the world, and wherever she goes she is in the thick of things. At
+one time it is a Nihilist plot which fascinates her; at another time, a
+plague-stricken community that calls her. She is in Africa when the
+slaver is secretly plying his trade, and again, in wicked Be�ra, at the
+opportune moment she interposes her calm, forceful personality between
+an aggressive ruffian and his friendless victim. Wherever she goes she
+attracts adventure to her. The book which recounts her extraordinary
+experiences is full of graphic pictures of men and women in widely
+separated parts of the globe, and the characterization of these is as
+forceful and impressive as the narrative in which they play their parts
+is swift in movement and enthralling in theme.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr4" />
+<p class="center"><span class="pub1">G. P. Putnam's Sons</span><br />
+<span class="fltleft pub2">New York</span> <span class="fltright pub2">London</span></p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+</div>
+
+
+<div id="box2">
+<p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Punctuation has been standardised. Spelling and hyphenation have been
+retained as in the original publication except as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page 19<br />
+    before her head could and its <em>changed to</em><br />
+    before her head could <a href="#add">add</a> its</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page 87<br />
+    advisable to have an an inventory <em>changed to</em><br />
+    advisable to have <a href="#an">an</a> inventory</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page 120<br />
+    heeded neither his works nor <em>changed to</em><br />
+    heeded neither his <a href="#words">words</a> nor</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page 135<br />
+    so may their hearts be. Wont <em>changed to</em><br />
+    so may their hearts be. <a href="#wont">Won't</a></p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page 144<br />
+    Hermoine, and then I could <em>changed to</em><br />
+    <a href="#Hermione">Hermione</a>, and then I could</p>
+
+<p class="noi">Page 209<br />
+    "since Hariet Smith is <em>changed to</em><br />
+    "since <a href="#Harriet">Harriet</a> Smith is</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Cynthia Wakeham's Money, by Anna Katharine Green
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's Cynthia Wakeham's Money, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+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: Cynthia Wakeham's Money
+
+Author: Anna Katharine Green
+
+Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36758]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WORKS BY
+
+Anna Katharine Green
+
+    THE LEAVENWORTH CASE.
+    A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.
+    THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES.
+    HAND AND RING.
+    THE MILL MYSTERY.
+    BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
+    CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY.
+    MARKED "PERSONAL."
+    MISS HURD: AN ENIGMA.
+    DR. IZARD.
+    THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR.
+    LOST MAN'S LANE.
+    AGATHA WEBB.
+    ONE OF MY SONS.
+    THE OLD STONE HOUSE.
+    7 TO 12 AND X. Y. Z.
+    THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK.
+    THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE, AND OTHER POEMS.
+    RISIFI'S DAUGHTER. A DRAMA.
+    THE HOUSE OF THE WHISPERING PINES.
+
+
+    G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+    NEW YORK & LONDON
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "'Let me have it!' cried Huckins. 'I have lived in this
+hole for fifteen years, till I have almost rotted away like the place
+itself!'"]
+
+
+
+
+Cynthia Wakeham's Money
+
+By
+
+Anna Katharine Green
+
+Author of "The Leavenworth Case," "Hand and Ring," "The Mill Mystery,"
+"The Defence of the Bride," etc.
+
+
+
+
+    G. P. Putnam's Sons
+    New York and London
+    The Knickerbocker Press
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1892
+
+BY
+
+ANNA KATHARINE GREEN
+
+Entered at Stationers' Hall, London BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+
+
+
+Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+A VILLAGE MYSTERY.
+
+ CHAPTER.                                         PAGE.
+
+       I. A WOMAN'S FACE                             1
+
+      II. A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE                      10
+
+     III. CONTINUATION OF A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE      27
+
+      IV. FLINT AND STEEL                           36
+
+       V. DIFFICULTIES                              45
+
+      VI. YOUNG MEN'S FANCIES                       55
+
+     VII. THE WAY OPENS                             71
+
+    VIII. A SEARCH AND ITS RESULTS                  80
+
+      IX. THE TWO SISTERS                           92
+
+       X. DORIS                                     97
+
+      XI. LOVE                                     109
+
+     XII. HOW MUCH DID IT MEAN?                    122
+
+    XIII. FRESH DOUBTS                             142
+
+     XIV. IN THE NIGHT WATCHES                     150
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+THE SECRET OF THE LABORATORY.
+
+      XV. THE BEGINNING OF CHANGES                 158
+
+     XVI. A STRANGE VISITOR                        169
+
+    XVII. TWO CONVERSATIONS                        181
+
+   XVIII. SUSPENSE                                 193
+
+     XIX. A DISCOVERY                              205
+
+      XX. THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON                     213
+
+     XXI. IN THE LABORATORY                        232
+
+    XXII. STEEL MEETS STEEL                        239
+
+   XXIII. A GROWING HORROR                         249
+
+    XXIV. FATHER AND CHILD                         261
+
+     XXV. EDGAR AND FRANK                          272
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+UNCLE AND NIECE.
+
+    XXVI. THE WHITE POWDER                         279
+
+   XXVII. THE HAND OF HUCKINS                      286
+
+  XXVIII. IN EXTREMITY                             300
+
+    XXIX. IN THE POPLAR WALK                       307
+
+     XXX. THE FINAL TERROR                         315
+
+    XXXI. AN EVENTFUL QUARTER OF AN HOUR           327
+
+   XXXII. THE SPECTRE OF THE LABORATORY            332
+
+
+
+
+CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+A VILLAGE MYSTERY.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+A WOMAN'S FACE.
+
+
+It was verging towards seven o'clock. The train had just left Marston
+station, and two young men stood on the platform surveying with very
+different eyes the stretch of country landscape lying before them. Frank
+Etheridge wore an eager aspect, the aspect of the bright, hopeful,
+energetic lawyer which he was, and his quick searching gaze flashed
+rapidly from point to point as if in one of the scattered homes within
+his view he sought an answer to some problem at present agitating his
+mind. He was a stranger in Marston.
+
+His companion, Edgar Sellick, wore a quieter air, or at least one more
+restrained. He was a native of the place, and was returning to it after
+a short and fruitless absence in the west, to resume his career of
+physician amid the scenes of his earliest associations. Both were tall,
+well-made, and handsome, and, to draw at once a distinction between them
+which will effectually separate their personalities, Frank Etheridge was
+a man to attract the attention of men, and Edgar Sellick that of women;
+the former betraying at first glance all his good qualities in the
+keenness of his eye and the frankness of his smile, and the latter
+hiding his best impulses under an air of cynicism so allied to
+melancholy that imagination was allowed free play in his behalf. They
+had attended the same college and had met on the train by chance.
+
+"I am expecting old Jerry, with a buggy," announced Edgar, looking
+indifferently down the road. The train was on time but Jerry was not,
+both of which facts were to be expected. "Ah, here he comes. You will
+ride to the tavern with me?"
+
+"With pleasure," was Frank's cheerful reply; "but what will you do with
+Jerry? He's a mile too large, as you see yourself, to be a third party
+in a buggy ride."
+
+"No doubt about that, but Jerry can walk; it will help to rob him of a
+little of his avoirdupois. As his future physician I shall prescribe it.
+I cannot have you miss the supper I have telegraphed for at Henly's."
+
+And being a determined man, he carried this scheme through, to Jerry's
+manifest but cheerfully accepted discomfort. As they were riding off,
+Edgar leaned from the buggy, and Frank heard him say to his panting
+follower:
+
+"Is it known in town that I am coming to-night?" To which that panting
+follower shrilly replied: "Ay, sir, and Tim Jones has lit a bond-fire
+and Jack Skelton hoisted a flag, so glad they be to have you back. Old
+Dudgeon was too intimate with the undertaker, sir. We hopes as you will
+turn a cold shoulder to him--the undertaker, I mean."
+
+At which Frank observed his friend give one of his peculiar smiles which
+might mean so little and might mean so much, but whatever it meant had
+that touch of bittersweet in it which at once hurts and attracts.
+
+"You like your profession?" Frank abruptly asked.
+
+Edgar turned, surveyed the other questioningly for a moment, then
+remarked:
+
+"Not as you like yours. Law seems to be a passion with you."
+
+Frank laughed. "Why not? I have no other love, why not give all my heart
+to that?"
+
+Edgar did not answer; he was looking straight before him at the lights
+in the village they were now rapidly approaching.
+
+"How strange it is we should have met in this way," exclaimed the young
+lawyer. "It is mighty fortunate for me, whatever it may be for you. You
+know all the people in town, and perhaps can tell me what will shorten
+my stay into hours."
+
+"Do you call that fortunate?" interrogated the other with one of his
+quiet smiles.
+
+"Well, no, only from a business view. But you see, Edgar, it is so
+short a time since I have thought of anything but business, that I have
+hardly got used to the situation. I should be sorry, now I come to think
+of it, to say good-by to you before I heard how you had enjoyed life
+since we parted on a certain Commencement day. You look older, while
+I----"
+
+He laughed. How merry the sound, and how the growing twilight seemed to
+brighten at it! Edgar looked for a moment as if he envied him that
+laugh, then he said:
+
+"You are not tripped up by petty obstacles. You have wings to your feet
+and soar above small disappointments. My soles cling to the ground and
+encounter there difficulty after difficulty. Hence the weariness with
+which I gain anything. But your business here,--what is it? You say I
+can aid you. How?"
+
+"Oh, it is a long story which will help to enliven our evening meal. Let
+us wait till then. At present I am interested in what I see before me.
+Snug homes, Edgar, and an exquisite landscape."
+
+The other, whose face for the last few minutes had been gradually
+settling into sterner and sterner lines, nodded automatically but did
+not look up from the horse he was driving.
+
+"Who lives in these houses? Old friends of yours?" Frank continued.
+
+Edgar nodded again, whipped his horse and for an instant allowed his
+eyes to wander up and down the road.
+
+"I used to know them all," he acknowledged, "but I suppose there have
+been changes."
+
+His tone had altered, his very frame had stiffened. Frank looked at him
+curiously.
+
+"You seem to be in a hurry," he remarked. "I enjoy this twilight drive,
+and--haloo! this is an odd old place we are coming to. Suppose you pull
+up and let me look at it."
+
+His companion, with a strange glance and an awkward air of
+dissatisfaction, did as he was bid, and Frank leaning from the buggy
+gazed long and earnestly at the quaint old house and grounds which had
+attracted his attention. Edgar did not follow his example but sat
+unmoved, looking fixedly at the last narrow strip of orange light that
+separated night from day on the distant horizon.
+
+"I feel as if I had come upon something uncanny," murmured Frank. "Look
+at that double row of poplars stretching away almost as far as we can
+see? Is it not an ideal Ghost's Walk, especially in this hour of falling
+shadows. I never saw anything so suggestive in a country landscape
+before. Each tree looks like a spectre hob-nobbing with its neighbor.
+Tell me that this is a haunted house which guards this avenue. Nothing
+less weird should dominate a spot so peculiar."
+
+"Frank, I did not know you were so fanciful," exclaimed the other,
+lashing his horse with a stinging whip.
+
+"Wait, wait! I am not fanciful, it is the place that is curious. If you
+were not in a hurry for your supper you would see it too. Come, give it
+a look. You may have observed it a hundred times before, but by this
+light you must acknowledge that it looks like a place with a history.
+Come, now, don't it?"
+
+Edgar drew in his horse for the second time and impatiently allowed his
+glance to follow in the direction indicated by his friend. What he saw
+has already been partially described. But details will not be amiss
+here, as the house and its surroundings were really unique, and bespoke
+an antiquity of which few dwellings can now boast even in the most
+historic parts of Connecticut.
+
+The avenue of poplars which had first attracted Frank's attention had
+this notable peculiarity, that it led from nowhere to nowhere. That is,
+it was not, as is usual in such cases, made the means of approach to the
+house, but on the contrary ran along its side from road to rear, thick,
+compact, and gruesome. The house itself was of timber, and was both gray
+and weather-beaten. It was one of the remnants of that old time when a
+family homestead rambled in all directions under a huge roof which
+accommodated itself to each new projection, like the bark to its tree.
+In this case the roof sloped nearly to the ground on one side, while on
+the other it beetled over a vine-clad piazza. In front of the house and
+on both sides of it rose a brick wall that, including the two rows of
+trees within its jealous cordon, shut off the entire premises from those
+of the adjoining neighbors, and gave to the whole place an air of
+desolation and remoteness which the smoke rising from its one tall
+chimney did not seem to soften or relieve. Yet old as it all was, there
+was no air of decay about the spot, nor was the garden neglected or the
+vines left untrimmed.
+
+"The home of a hermit," quoth Frank. "You know who lives there of
+course, but if you did not I would wager that it is some old scion of
+the past----"
+
+Suddenly he stopped, suddenly his hand was laid on the horse's rein
+falling somewhat slack in the grasp of his companion. A lamp had at that
+instant been brought into one of the front rooms of the house he was
+contemplating, and the glimpse he thus caught of the interior attracted
+his eyes and even arrested the gaze of the impatient Edgar. For the
+woman who held the lamp was no common one, and the face which showed
+above it was one to stop any man who had an eye for the beautiful, the
+inscrutable, and the tragic. As Frank noted it and marked its exquisite
+lines, its faultless coloring, and that air of profound and mysterious
+melancholy which made it stand out distinctly in the well-lighted space
+about it, he tightened his grip on the reins he had snatched, till the
+horse stood still in the road, and Edgar impatiently watching him,
+perceived that the gay look had crept from his face, leaving there an
+expression of indefinable yearning which at once transfigured and
+ennobled it.
+
+"What beauty! What unexpected beauty!" Frank whispered at last. "Did you
+ever see its like, Edgar?"
+
+The answer came with Edgar's most cynical smile:
+
+"Wait till she turns her head."
+
+And at that moment she did turn it. On the instant Frank drew in his
+breath and Edgar expected to see him drop his hand from the reins and
+sink back disillusionized and indifferent. But he did not. On the
+contrary, his attitude betrayed a still deeper interest and longing, and
+murmuring, "How sad! poor girl!" he continued to gaze till Edgar, with
+one strange, almost shrinking look in the direction of the unconscious
+girl now moving abstractedly across the room, tore the reins from his
+hands and started the horse again towards their place of destination.
+
+Frank, whom the sudden movement seemed to awaken as from a dream,
+glanced for a moment almost angrily at his companion, then he settled
+back in his seat, saying nothing till the lights of the tavern became
+visible, when he roused himself and inquired:
+
+"Who is that girl, Edgar, and how did she become so disfigured?"
+
+"I don't know," was the short reply; "she has always been so, I believe,
+at least since I remember seeing her. It looks like the scar of a wound,
+but I have never heard any explanation given of it."
+
+"Her name, Edgar?"
+
+"Hermione Cavanagh."
+
+"You know her?"
+
+"Somewhat."
+
+"Are you"--the words came with a pant, shortly, intensely, and as if
+forced from him--"in love--with her?"
+
+"No." Edgar's passion seemed for the moment to be as great as that of
+the other. "How came you to think of such a thing?"
+
+"Because--because," Frank whispered almost humbly, "you seemed so short
+in your replies, and because, I might as well avow it, she seems to me
+one to command the love of all men."
+
+"Well, sirs, here I be as quick as you," shouted a voice in their rear,
+and old Jerry came lumbering forward, just in time to hold their horse
+as they alighted at the tavern.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE.
+
+
+Supper that night did not bring to these two friends all the enjoyment
+which they had evidently anticipated. In the first place it was
+continually interrupted by greetings to the young physician whose
+unexpected return to his native town had awakened in all classes a
+decided enthusiasm. Then Frank was moody, he who was usually gaiety
+itself. He wanted to talk about the beautiful and unfortunate Miss
+Cavanagh, and Edgar did not, and this created embarrassment between
+them, an embarrassment all the more marked that there seemed to be some
+undefined reason for Edgar's reticence not to be explained by any
+obvious cause. At length Frank broke out impetuously:
+
+"If you won't tell me anything about this girl, I must look up some one
+who will. Those cruel marks on her face have completed the charm of her
+beauty, and not till I know something of their history and of her, will
+I go to sleep to-night. So much for the impression which a woman's face
+can make upon an unsusceptible man."
+
+"Frank," observed the other, coldly, "I should say that your time might
+be much better employed in relating to me the cause for your being in
+Marston."
+
+The young lawyer started, shook himself, and laughed.
+
+"Oh, true, I had forgotten," said he, and supper being now over he got
+up and began pacing the floor. "Do you know any one here by the name of
+Harriet Smith?"
+
+"No," returned the other, "but I have been away a year, and many persons
+may have come into town in that time."
+
+"But I mean an old resident," Frank explained, "a lady of years,
+possibly a widow."
+
+"I never heard of such a person," rejoined Edgar. "Are you sure there is
+such a woman in town? I should be apt to know it if there were."
+
+"I am not sure she is here now, or for that matter that she is living,
+but if she is not and I learn the names and whereabouts of any heirs she
+may have left behind her, I shall be satisfied with the results of my
+journey. Harriet Smith! Surely you have heard of her."
+
+"No," Edgar protested, "I have not."
+
+"It is odd," remarked Frank, wrinkling his brows in some perplexity. "I
+thought I should have no trouble in tracing her. Not that I care," he
+avowed with brightening countenance. "On the contrary, I can scarcely
+quarrel with a fact that promises to detain me in your company for a few
+days."
+
+"No? Then your mind has suddenly changed in that regard," Edgar dryly
+insinuated.
+
+Frank blushed. "I think not," was his laughing reply. "But let me tell
+my story. It may interest you in a pursuit that I begin to see is likely
+to possess difficulties." And lighting a cigar, he sat down with his
+friend by the open window. "I do not suppose you know much about
+Brooklyn, or, if you do, that you are acquainted with that portion of it
+which is called Flatbush. I will therefore explain that this outlying
+village is a very old one, antedating the Revolution. Though within a
+short car-drive from the great city, it has not yet given up its life to
+it, but preserves in its one main street at least, a certain
+individuality which still connects it with the past. My office, as you
+know, is in New York, but I have several clients in Brooklyn and one or
+two in Flatbush, so I was not at all surprised, though considerably put
+out, when one evening, just as I was about to start for the theatre, a
+telegram was handed me by the janitor, enjoining me to come without
+delay to Flatbush prepared to draw up the will of one, Cynthia Wakeham,
+lying, as the sender of the telegram declared, at the point of death.
+Though I knew neither this name, nor that of the man who signed it,
+which was Hiram Huckins, and had no particular desire to change the
+place of my destination at that hour, I had really no good reason for
+declining the business thus offered me. So making a virtue of necessity,
+I gave up the theatre and started instead for Flatbush, which, from the
+house where I lodge in upper New York, is a good hour and a half's ride
+even by the way of the bridge and the elevated roads. It was therefore
+well on towards ten o'clock before I arrived in the shaded street which
+in the daylight and in the full brightness of a summer's sun I had
+usually found so attractive, but which at night and under the
+circumstances which had brought me there looked both sombre and
+forbidding. However I had not come upon an errand of pleasure, so I did
+not spend much time in contemplating my surroundings, but beckoning to
+the conductor of the street-car on which I was riding, I asked him if he
+knew Mrs. Wakeham's house, and when he nodded, asked him to set me down
+before it. I thought he gave me a queer look, but as his attention was
+at that moment diverted, I could not be sure of it, and before he came
+my way again the car had stopped and he was motioning to me to alight.
+
+"'That is the house,' said he, pointing to two huge gate-posts
+glimmering whitely in the light of a street-lamp opposite, and I was on
+the sidewalk and in front of the two posts before I remembered that a
+man on the rear platform of the car had muttered as I stepped by him: 'A
+visitor for Widow Wakeham, eh; she _must_ be sick, then!'
+
+"The house stood back a short distance from the street, and as I
+entered the gate, which by the way looked as if it would tumble down if
+I touched it, I could see nothing but a gray mass with one twinkling
+light in it. But as I drew nearer I became aware that it was not a
+well-kept and hospitable mansion towards which I was tending, however
+imposing might be its size and general structure. If only from the
+tangled growth of the shrubbery about me and the long dank stalks of the
+weeds that lay as if undisturbed by mortal feet upon the walk, I could
+gather that whatever fortune Mrs. Wakeham might have to leave she had
+not expended much in the keeping of her home. But it was upon reaching
+the house I experienced the greatest surprise. There were walls before
+me, no doubt, and a huge portico, but the latter was hanging as it were
+by faith to supports so dilapidated that even the darkness of that late
+hour could not hide their ruin or the impending fall of the whole
+structure. So old, so uncared-for, and so utterly out of keeping with
+the errand upon which I had come looked the whole place that I
+instinctively drew back, assured that the conductor had made some
+mistake in directing me thither. But no sooner had I turned my back upon
+the house, than a window was thrown up over my head and I heard the
+strangely eager voice of a man say:
+
+"'This is the place, sir. Wait, and I will open the door for you.'
+
+"I did as he bade me, though not without some reluctance. The voice,
+for all its tone of anxiety, sounded at once false and harsh, and I
+instinctively associated with it a harsh and false face. The house, too,
+did not improve in appearance upon approach. The steps shook under my
+tread, and I could not but notice by the faint light sifting through the
+bushes from the lamp on the other side of the way, that the balustrades
+had been pulled from their places, leaving only gaping holes to mark
+where they had once been. The door was intact, but in running my hand
+over it I discovered that the mouldings had been stripped from its face,
+and that the knocker, hanging as it did by one nail, was ready to fall
+at the first provocation. If Cynthia Wakeham lived here, it would be
+interesting to know the extent of her wealth. As there seemed to be some
+delay in the opening of the door, I had time to note that the grounds
+(all of these houses have grounds about them) were of some extent, but,
+as I have said, in a manifest condition of overgrowth and neglect. As I
+mused upon the contrast they must afford in the bright daylight to the
+wide and well-kept lawns of the more ambitious owners on either side, a
+footstep sounded on the loose boards which had evidently been flung down
+at one side of the house as a sort of protection to the foot from the
+darkness and mud of the neglected path, and a woman's form swung dimly
+into view, laden with a great pile of what looked to me like brushwood.
+As she passed she seemed to become conscious of my presence, and,
+looking up, she let the huge bundle slip slowly from her shoulders till
+it lay in the darkness at her feet.
+
+"'Are you,' she whispered, coming close to the foot of the steps, 'going
+in there?'
+
+"'Yes,' I returned, struck by the mingled surprise and incredulity in
+her tone.
+
+"She stood still a minute, then came up a step.
+
+"'Are you a minister?' she asked.
+
+"'No,' I laughed; 'why?'
+
+"She seemed to reason with herself before saying: 'No one ever goes into
+that house; I thought perhaps you did not know. They won't have any one.
+Would you mind telling me,' she went on, in a hungry whisper almost
+thrilling to hear, coming as it did through the silence and darkness of
+the night, 'what you find in the house? I will be at the gate, sir,
+and----'
+
+"She paused, probably awed by the force of my exclamation, and picking
+up her bundle of wet boughs, slunk away, but not without turning more
+than once before she reached the gate. Scarcely had she disappeared into
+the street when a window went up in a neighboring house. At the same
+moment, some one, I could not tell whether it was a man or a woman, came
+up the path as far as the first trees and there paused, while a shrill
+voice called out:
+
+"'They never unlocks that door; visitors ain't wanted.'
+
+"Evidently, if I were not admitted soon I should have the whole
+neighborhood about me.
+
+"I lifted the knocker, but it came off in my hand. Angry at the
+mischance, and perhaps a little moved by the excitement of my position,
+I raised the broken piece of iron and gave a thundering knock on the
+rotten panels before me. Instantly the door opened, creaking ominously
+as it did so, and a man stood in the gap with a wretched old kerosene
+lamp in his hand. The apologetic leer on his evil countenance did not
+for a moment deceive me.
+
+"'I beg your pardon,' he hurriedly exclaimed, and his voice showed he
+was a man of education, notwithstanding his forlorn and wretched
+appearance, 'but the old woman had a turn just as you came, and I could
+not leave her.'
+
+"I looked at him, and instinct told me to quit the spot and not enter a
+house so vilely guarded. For the man was not only uncouth to the last
+degree in dress and aspect, but sinister in expression and servilely
+eager in bearing.
+
+"'Won't you come in?' he urged. 'The old woman is past talking, but she
+can make signs; perhaps an hour from now she will not be able to do even
+that.'
+
+"'Do you allude to the woman who wishes to make her will?' I asked.
+
+"'Yes,' he answered, greedily, 'Cynthia Wakeham, my sister.' And he
+gently pushed the door in a way that forced me to enter or show myself a
+coward.
+
+"I took heart and went in. What poverty I beheld before me in the light
+of that solitary smoking lamp! If the exterior of the house bore the
+marks of devastation, what shall I say of the barren halls and denuded
+rooms which now opened before me? Not a chair greeted my eyes, though a
+toppling stool here and there showed that people sat in this place. Nor
+did I see a table, though somewhere in some remote region beyond the
+staircase I heard the clatter of plates, as if eating were also known in
+this home of almost ostentatious penury. Staircase I say, but I should
+have said steps, for the balustrades were missing here just as they had
+been missing without, and not even a rail remained to speak of old-time
+comfort and prosperity.
+
+"'I am very poor,' humbly remarked the man, answering my look of
+perplexity. 'It is my sister who has the money.' And moving towards the
+stairs, he motioned me to ascend.
+
+"Even then I recoiled, not knowing what to make of this adventure; but
+hearing a hollow groan from above, uttered in tones unmistakably
+feminine, I remembered my errand and went up, followed so closely by the
+man, that his breath, mingled with the smell of that vile lamp, seemed
+to pant on my shoulder. I shall never smell kerosene again without
+recalling the sensations of that moment.
+
+"Arriving at the top of the stair, up which my distorted shadow had gone
+before me, I saw an open door and went in. A woman was lying in one
+corner on a hard and uncomfortable bed, a woman whose eyes drew me to
+her side before a word had been spoken.
+
+"She was old and in the last gasp of some fatal disease. But it was not
+this which impressed me most. It was the searching look with which she
+greeted me,--a piteous, hunted look, like that of some wild animal
+driven to bay and turning upon her conqueror for some signs of relenting
+or pity. It made the haggard face eloquent; it assured me without a word
+that some great wrong had been done or was about to be done, and that I
+must show myself at once her friend if I would gain her confidence.
+
+"Advancing to her side, I spoke to her kindly, asking if she were
+Cynthia Wakeham, and if she desired the services of a lawyer.
+
+"She at once nodded painfully but unmistakably, and, lifting her hand,
+pointed to her lips and shook her head.
+
+"'She means that she cannot speak', explained the man, in a pant, over
+my shoulder.
+
+"Moving a step aside in my disgust, I said to her, not to him:
+
+"'But you can hear?'
+
+"Her intelligent eye responded before her head could add its painful
+acquiescence.
+
+"'And you have property to leave?'
+
+"'This house', answered the man.
+
+"My eyes wandered mechanically to the empty cupboards about me from
+which the doors had been wrenched and, as I now saw from the looks of
+the fireplace, burned.
+
+"'The ground--the ground is worth something,' quoth the man.
+
+"'The avidity with which he spoke satisfied me at least upon one
+point--_he_ was the expectant heir.
+
+"'Your name?' I asked, turning sharply upon him.
+
+"'Hiram Huckins.'
+
+"It was the name attached to the telegram.
+
+"'And you are the brother of this woman?'
+
+"'Yes, yes.'
+
+"I had addressed him, but I looked at her. She answered my look with a
+steadfast gaze, but there was no dissent in it, and I considered that
+point settled.
+
+"'She is a married woman, then?'
+
+"'A widow; husband died long years ago.'
+
+"'Any children?'
+
+"'No.' And I saw in her face that he spoke the truth.
+
+"'But you and she have brothers or sisters? You are not her only
+relative?'
+
+"'I am the only one who has stuck by her,' he sullenly answered. 'We did
+have a sister, but she is gone; fled from home years ago; lost in the
+great world; dead, perhaps. _She_ don't care for her; ask her.'
+
+"I did ask her, but the haggard face said nothing. The eyes burned, but
+they had a waiting look.
+
+"'To whom do you want to leave your property?' I inquired of her
+pointedly.
+
+"Had she glanced at the man, had her face even changed, or so much as a
+tremor shook her rigid form, I might have hesitated. But the quiet way
+in which she lifted her hand and pointed with one finger in his
+direction while she looked straight at me, convinced me that whatever
+was wrong, her mind was made up as to the disposal of her property. So
+taking out my papers, I sat down on the rude bench drawn up beside the
+bed and began to write.
+
+"The man stood behind me with the lamp. He was so eager and bent over
+me so closely that the smell of the lamp and his nearness were more than
+I could bear.
+
+"'Set down the lamp,' I cried. 'Get a table--something--don't lean over
+me like that.'
+
+"But there was nothing, actually nothing for him to put the lamp on, and
+I was forced to subdue my disgust and get used as best I could to his
+presence and to his great shadow looming on the wall behind us. But I
+could not get used to her eyes hurrying me, and my hand trembled as I
+wrote.
+
+"'Have you any name but Cynthia?' I inquired, looking up.
+
+"She painfully shook her head.
+
+"'You had better tell me what her husband's name was,' I suggested to
+the brother.
+
+"'John Lapham Wakeham,' was the quick reply.
+
+"I wrote down both names. Then I said, looking intently at the dying
+widow:
+
+"'As you cannot speak, you must make signs. Shake your hand when you
+wish to say no, and move it up and down when you wish to say yes. Do you
+understand?'
+
+"She signalled somewhat impatiently that she did, and then, lifting her
+hand with a tremulous movement, pointed anxiously towards a large Dutch
+clock, which was the sole object of adornment in the room.
+
+"'She urges you to hurry,' whispered the man. 'Make it short, make it
+short. The doctor I called in this morning said she might die any
+minute.'
+
+"As from her appearance I judged this to be only too possible, I hastily
+wrote a few words more, and then asked:
+
+"'Is this property all that you have to leave?'
+
+"I had looked at her, though I knew it would be the man who would
+answer.
+
+"'Yes, yes, this house,' he cried. 'Put it strong; this house and all
+there is in it.'
+
+"I thought of its barren rooms and empty cupboards, and a strange fancy
+seized me. Going straight to the woman, I leaned over her and said:
+
+"'Is it your desire to leave all that you possess to this brother? Real
+property and personal, this house, and also everything it contains?'
+
+"She did not answer, even by a sign, but pointed again to the clock.
+
+"'She means that you are to go right on,' he cried. 'And indeed you
+must,' he pursued, eagerly. 'She won't be able to sign her name if you
+wait much longer.'
+
+"I felt the truth of this, and yet I hesitated.
+
+"'Where are the witnesses?' I asked. 'She must have two witnesses to her
+signature.'
+
+"'Won't I do for one?' he inquired.
+
+"'No,' I returned; 'the one benefited by a will is disqualified from
+witnessing it.'
+
+"He looked confounded for a moment. Then he stepped to the door and
+shouted, 'Briggs! Briggs!'
+
+"As if in answer there came a clatter as of falling dishes, and as
+proof of the slavery which this woman had evidently been under to his
+avarice, she gave a start, dying as she was, and turned upon him with a
+frightened gaze, as if she expected from him an ebullition of wrath.
+
+"'Briggs, is there a light in Mr. Thompson's house?'
+
+"'Yes,' answered a gruff voice from the foot of the stairs.
+
+"'Go then, and ask him or the first person you see there, if he will
+come in here for a minute. Be very polite and don't swear, or I won't
+pay you the money I promised you. Say that Mrs. Wakeham is dying, and
+that the lawyer is drawing up her will. Get James Sotherby to come too,
+and if he won't do it, somebody else who is respectable. Everything must
+be very legal, sir,' he explained, turning to me, 'very legal.'
+
+"Not knowing what to think of this man, but seeing only one thing to
+do, I nodded, and asked the woman whom I should name as executor. She at
+once indicated her brother, and as I wrote in his name and concluded the
+will, she watched me with an intentness that made my nerves creep,
+though I am usually anything but susceptible to such influences. When
+the document was ready I rose and stood at her side in some doubt of the
+whole transaction. Was it her will I had expressed in the paper I held
+before me, or his? Had she been constrained by his influence to do what
+she was doing, or was her mind free to act and but obeying its natural
+instincts? I determined to make one effort at finding out. Turning
+towards the man, I said firmly:
+
+"'Before Mrs. Wakeham signs this will she must know exactly what it
+contains. I can read it to her, but I prefer her to read the paper for
+herself. Get her glasses, then, if she needs them, and bring them here
+at once, or I throw up this business and take the document away with me
+out of the house.'
+
+"'But she has no glasses,' he protested; 'they were broken long ago.'
+
+"'Get them,' I cried; 'or get yours,--she shall not sign that document
+till you do.'
+
+"But he stood hesitating, loth, as I now believe, to leave us together,
+though that was exactly what I desired, which she, seeing, feverishly
+clutched my sleeve, and, with a force of which I should not have thought
+her capable, made wild gestures to the effect that I should not delay
+any longer, but read it to her myself.
+
+"Seeing by this, as I thought, that her own feelings were,
+notwithstanding my doubts, really engaged in the same direction as his,
+I desisted from my efforts to separate the two, if it were only for a
+moment, and read the will aloud. It ran thus:
+
+    "The last will and testament of Cynthia Wakeham, widow of John
+    Lapham Wakeham, of Flatbush, Kings County, New York.
+
+    "First: I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses to be
+    paid.
+
+    "Second: I give, devise, and bequeath to my brother, Hiram
+    Huckins, all the property, real and personal, which I own, or to
+    which I may be entitled, at the time of my death, and I appoint
+    him the sole executor of this my last will and testament.
+
+    "Witness my hand this fifth day of June, in the year eighteen
+    hundred and eighty-eight.
+
+    "Signed, published, and declared by the      }
+    Testatrix to be her last will and testament, }
+    in our presence who, at her request and      }
+    in her presence and in the presence of       }
+    each other, have subscribed our names        }
+    hereto as witnesses, on this 5th day of      }
+    June, 1888.                                  }
+
+"'Is that the expression of your wishes?' I asked, when I had finished.
+
+"She nodded, and reached out her hand for the pen.
+
+"'You must wait,' said I, 'for the witnesses.'
+
+"But even as I spoke their approach was heard, and Huckins was forced to
+go to the door with the lamp, for the hall was pitch dark and the stairs
+dangerous. As he turned his back upon us, I thought Mrs. Wakeham moved
+and opened her lips, but I may have been mistaken, for his black and
+ominous shadow lay over her face, and I could discern but little of its
+expression.
+
+"'Is there anything you want?' I asked her, rising and going to the
+bedside.
+
+"But Huckins was alert to all my movements, if he had stepped for a
+moment away.
+
+"'Give her water,' he cried, wheeling sharply about. And pointing to a
+broken glass standing on the floor at her side, he watched me while I
+handed it to her.
+
+"'She mus'n't give out now,' he pursued, with one eye on us and the
+other on the persons coming upstairs.
+
+"'She will not,' I returned, seeing her face brighten at the sound of
+approaching steps.
+
+"'It's Miss Thompson and Mr. Dickey,' now spoke up the gruff voice of
+Briggs from the foot of the steps. 'No other folks was up, so I brought
+them along.'
+
+"The young woman, who at this instant appeared in the doorway, blushed
+and cast a shy look over her shoulder at the fresh-faced man who
+followed her.
+
+"'It's all right, Minnie,' immediately interposed that genial personage,
+with a cheerful smile; 'every one knows we are keeping company and mean
+to be married as soon as the times improve.'
+
+"'Yes, every one knows,' she sighed, and stepped briskly into the room,
+her intelligent face and kindly expression diffusing a cheer about her
+such as the dismal spot had doubtless lacked for years.
+
+"I heard afterward that this interesting couple had been waiting for
+the times to improve, for the last fifteen years."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+CONTINUATION OF A LAWYER'S ADVENTURE.
+
+
+"The two witnesses had scarcely entered the room before the dying woman
+stretched out her hand again for the pen. As I handed it to her and
+placed the document before her on my portfolio, I asked:
+
+"'Do you declare this paper to be your last will and testament and do
+you request these persons to witness it?'
+
+"She bowed a quick acquiescence, and put the pen at the place I pointed
+out to her.
+
+"'Shall I support your hand?' I pursued, fearful she would not have the
+strength to complete the task.
+
+"But she shook her head and wrote her name in hastily, with a feverish
+energy that astonished me. Expecting to see her drop back exhausted if
+not lifeless as the pen left the paper, I drew the document away and
+bent to support her. But she did not need my assistance. Indeed she
+looked stronger than before, and what was still more astonishing, seemed
+even more anxious and burningly eager.
+
+"'Is she holding up till the witnesses have affixed their signatures?'
+I inwardly queried. And intent upon relieving her, I hastily explained
+to them the requirements of the case, and did not myself breathe easily
+till I saw their two names below hers. Then I felt that she could rest;
+but to my surprise but one sigh of relief rose in that room, and that
+was from the cringing, cruel-eyed inheritor, who, at the first
+intimation that the document was duly signed and attested, sprang from
+his corner with such a smile that the place seemed to grow hideous, and
+I drew involuntarily back.
+
+"'Let me have it,' were his first words. 'I have lived in this hole, and
+for fifteen years made myself a slave to her whims, till I have almost
+rotted away like the place itself. And now I want my reward. Let me have
+the will.'
+
+"His hand was on the paper and in my surprise I had almost yielded it up
+to him, when another hand seized it, and the dying, gasping woman,
+mumbling and mouthing, pointed for the third time to the clock and then
+to one corner of the paper, trying to make me understand something I
+entirely failed to comprehend.
+
+"'What is it?' I asked. 'What do you want? Is not the will to your
+liking?'
+
+"'Yes, yes,' her frenzied nods seemed to say, and yet she continued
+pointing to the clock and then to the paper while the angry man before
+her stared and muttered in a mixture of perplexity and alarm which added
+no little to the excitement of the harrowing scene.
+
+"'Let me see if I can tell what she wants,' suddenly observed the young
+woman who had signed the paper as a witness. And bringing her sweet
+womanly face around where the rolling eye of the woman could see her,
+she asked with friendly interest in her tone, 'Do you wish the time of
+day written on the will?'
+
+"Oh, the relief that swept over that poor woman's tortured countenance!
+She nodded and looked up at me so confidingly that in despite of the
+oddity of the request I rapidly penned after the date, the words 'at
+half-past ten o'clock P.M.,' and caused the witnesses to note the
+addition.
+
+"This seemed to satisfy her, and she sank back with a sign that I was to
+yield to her brother's demand and give him the paper he coveted, and
+when I hesitated, started up again with such a frenzied appeal in her
+face that in the terror of seeing her die before our eyes, I yielded it
+to his outstretched hand, expecting at the most to see him put it in his
+pocket.
+
+"But no, the moment he felt it in his grasp, he set down the lamp, and,
+without a look in her direction or a word of thanks to me or the two
+neighbors who had come to his assistance, started rapidly from the room.
+Disturbed and doubting my own wisdom in thus yielding to an impulse of
+humanity which may be called weakness by such strong-minded men as
+yourself, I turned to follow him, but the woman's trembling hand again
+stopped me; and convinced at last that I was alarming myself
+unnecessarily and that she had had as much pleasure in making him her
+heir as he in being made so, I turned to pay her my adieux, when the
+expression of her face, changed now from what it had been to one of hope
+and trembling delight, made me pause again in wonder, and almost
+prepared me for the low and thrilling whisper which now broke from her
+lips in distinct tones.
+
+"'Is he gone?'
+
+"'Then you can speak,' burst from the young woman.
+
+"The widow gave her an eloquent look.
+
+"'I have not spoken,' said she, 'for two days; I have been saving my
+strength. Hark!' she suddenly whispered. 'He has no light, he will pitch
+over the landing. No, no, he has gone by it in safety, he has
+reached----' she paused and listened intently, trembling as she did
+so--'Will he go into _that_ room?--Run! follow! see if he has dared--but
+no, he has gone down to the kitchen,' came in quick glad relief from her
+lips as a distant door shut softly at the back end of the house. 'He is
+leaving the house and will never come back. I am released forever from
+his watchfulness; I am free! Now, sir, draw up another will, quick; let
+these two kind friends wait and see me sign it, and God will bless you
+for your kindness and my eyes will close in peace upon this cruel
+world.'
+
+"Aghast but realizing in a moment that she had but lent herself to her
+brother's wishes in order to rid herself of a surveillance which had
+possibly had an almost mesmeric influence upon her, I opened my
+portfolio again, saying:
+
+"'You declare yourself then to have been unduly influenced by your
+brother in making the will you have just signed in the presence of these
+two witnesses?'
+
+"To which she replied with every evidence of a clear mind----
+
+"'I do; I do. I could not move, I could not breathe, I could not think
+except as he willed it. When he was near, and he was always near, I had
+to do just as he wished--perhaps because I was afraid of him, perhaps
+because he had the stronger will of the two, I do not know; I cannot
+explain it, but he ruled me and has done so all my life till this hour.
+Now he has left me, left me to die, as he thinks, unfriended and alone,
+but I am strong yet, stronger than he knows, and before I turn my face
+to the wall, I will tear my property from his unholy grasp and give it
+where I have always wanted it to go--to my poor, lost, unfortunate
+sister.'
+
+"'Ah,' thought I, 'I see, I see'; and satisfied at last that I was no
+longer being made the minister of an unscrupulous avarice, I hastily
+drew up a second will, only pausing to ask the name of her sister and
+the place of her residence.
+
+"'Her name is Harriet Smith,' was the quick reply, 'and she lived when
+last I heard of her in Marston, a little village in Connecticut. She may
+be dead now, it is so long since I received any news of her,--Hiram
+would never let me write to her,--but she may have had children, and if
+so, they are just as welcome as she is to the little I have to give.'
+
+"'Her children's names?' I asked.
+
+"'I don't know, I don't know anything about her. But you will find out
+everything necessary when I am gone; and if she is living, or has
+children, you will see that they are reinstated in the home of their
+ancestors. For,' she now added eagerly, 'they must come here to live,
+and build up this old house again and make it respectable once more or
+they cannot have my money. I want you to put that in my will; for when I
+have seen these old walls toppling, the doors wrenched off, and its
+lintels demolished for firewood, for _firewood_, sir, I have kept my
+patience alive and my hope up by saying, Never mind; some day Harriet's
+children will make this all right again. The old house which their kind
+grandfather was good enough to give me for my own, shall not fall to the
+ground without one effort on my part to save it. And this is how I will
+accomplish it. This house is for Harriet or Harriet's children if they
+will come here and live in it one year, but if they will not do this,
+let it go to my brother, for I shall have no more interest in it. You
+heed me, lawyer?'
+
+"I nodded and wrote on busily, thinking, perhaps, that if Harriet or
+Harriet's children did not have some money of their own to fix up this
+old place, they would scarcely care to accept their forlorn inheritance.
+Meantime the two witnesses who had lingered at the woman's whispered
+entreaty exchanged glances, and now and then a word expressive of the
+interest they were taking in this unusual affair.
+
+"'Who is to be the executor of _this_ will?' I inquired.
+
+"'You,' she cried. Then, as I started in surprise, she added: 'I know
+nobody but you. Put yourself in as executor, and oh, sir, when it is all
+in your hands, find my lost relatives, I beseech you, and bring them
+here, and take them into my mother's room at the end of the hall, and
+tell them it is all theirs, and that they must make it their room and
+fix it up and lay a new floor--you remember, a new floor--and----' Her
+words rambled off incoherently, but her eyes remained fixed and eager.
+
+"I wrote in my name as executor.
+
+"When the document was finished, I placed it before her and asked the
+young lady who had been acting as my lamp-bearer to read it aloud. This
+she did; the second will reading thus:
+
+    "The last will and testament of Cynthia Wakeham, widow of John
+    Lapham Wakeham, of Flatbush, Kings County, New York.
+
+    "First: I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses to be
+    paid.
+
+    "Second: I give, devise, and bequeath all my property to my
+    sister, Harriet Smith, if living at my death, and, if not
+    living, then to her children living at my death, in equal
+    shares, upon condition, nevertheless, that the legatee or
+    legatees who take under this will shall forthwith take up their
+    residence in the house I now occupy in Flatbush, and continue to
+    reside therein for at least one year thence next ensuing. If
+    neither my said sister nor any of her descendants be living at
+    my death, or if so living, the legatee who takes hereunder shall
+    fail to comply with the above conditions, then all of said
+    property shall go to my brother, Hiram Huckins.
+
+    "Third: I appoint Frank Etheridge, of New York City, sole
+    executor of this my last will and testament, thereby revoking
+    all other wills by me made, especially that which was executed
+    on this date at half-past ten o'clock.
+
+    "Witness my hand this fifth day of June, in the year eighteen
+    hundred and eighty-eight.
+
+    "Signed, published, and declared     }
+    by the testatrix to be her last will }
+    and testament, in our presence, who, }
+    at her request and in her presence   }
+    and in the presence of each other,   }
+    have subscribed our names hereto as  }
+    witnesses, on this 5th day of June,  }
+    1888, at five minutes to eleven P.M. }
+
+"This was satisfactory to the dying widow, and her strength kept up till
+she signed it and saw it duly attested; but when that was done, and the
+document safely stowed away in my pocket, she suddenly collapsed and
+sank back in a dying state upon her pillow.
+
+"'What are we going to do?' now cried Miss Thompson, with looks of
+great compassion at the poor woman thus bereft, at the hour of death, of
+the natural care of relatives and friends. 'We cannot leave her here
+alone. Has she no doctor--no nurse?'
+
+"'Doctors cost money,' murmured the almost speechless sufferer. And
+whether the smile which tortured her poor lips as she said these words
+was one of bitterness at the neglect she had suffered, or of
+satisfaction at the thought she had succeeded in saving this expense, I
+have never been able to decide.
+
+"As I stooped to raise her now fallen head a quick, loud sound came to
+our ears from the back of the house, as of boards being ripped up from
+the floor by a reckless and determined hand. Instantly the woman's face
+assumed a ghastly look, and, tossing up her arms, she cried:
+
+"'He has found the box!--the box! Stop him! Do not let him carry it
+away! It is----' She fell back, and I thought all was over; but in
+another instant she had raised herself almost to a sitting position, and
+was pointing straight at the clock. 'There! there! look! the clock!' And
+without a sigh or another movement she sank back on the pillow, dead."
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+FLINT AND STEEL.
+
+
+"Greatly startled, I drew back from the bed which but a moment before
+had been the scene of such mingled emotions.
+
+"'All is over here,' said I, and turned to follow the man whom with her
+latest breath she had bidden me to stop from leaving the house.
+
+"As I could not take the lamp and leave my companions in darkness, I
+stepped out into a dark hall; but before I had taken a half dozen steps
+I heard a cautious foot descending the back stairs, and realizing that
+it would be both foolish and unsafe for me to endeavor to follow him
+through the unlighted rooms and possibly intricate passages of this
+upper hall, I bounded down the front stairs, and feeling my way from
+door to door, at last emerged into a room where there was a lamp
+burning.
+
+"I had found the kitchen, and in it were Huckins and the man Briggs.
+Huckins had his hand on the latch of the outside door, and from his look
+and the bundle he carried, I judged that if I had been a minute later he
+would have been in full flight from the house.
+
+"'Put out the light!' he shouted to Briggs.
+
+"But I stepped forward, and the man did not dare obey him, and Huckins
+himself looked cowed and dropped his hand from the door-knob.
+
+"'Where are you going?' I asked, moving rapidly to his side.
+
+"'Isn't she dead?' was his only answer, given with a mixture of mockery
+and triumph difficult to describe.
+
+"'Yes,' I assented, 'she is dead; but that does not justify you in
+flying the house.'
+
+"'And who says I am flying?' he protested. 'Cannot I go out on an errand
+without being told I am running away?'
+
+"'An errand,' I repeated, 'two minutes after your sister has breathed
+her last! Don't talk to me of errands. Your appearance is that of
+flight, and that bundle in your arms looks like the cause of it.'
+
+"His eye, burning with a passion very natural under the circumstances,
+flashed over me with a look of disdain.
+
+"'And what do you know of my appearance, and what is it to you if I
+carry or do not carry a bundle out of this house? Am I not master of
+everything here?'
+
+"'No,' I cried boldly; then, thinking it might perhaps be wiser not to
+undeceive him as to his position till I had fully sounded his purposes,
+I added somewhat nonchalantly: 'that is, you are not master enough to
+take anything away that belonged to your sister. If you can prove to me
+that there is nothing in that bundle save what is yours and was yours
+before your sister died, well and good, you may go away with it and
+leave your poor dead sister to be cared for in her own house by
+strangers. But while I have the least suspicion that property of any
+nature belonging to this estate is hidden away under that roll of old
+clothes, you stop here if I have to appeal first to the strength of my
+arms and then to that of the law.'
+
+"'But,' he quavered, 'it is mine--_mine_. I am but carrying away my own.
+Did you not draw up the will yourself? Don't you know she gave
+everything to me?'
+
+"'What I know has nothing to do with it,' I retorted. 'Did you think
+because you saw a will drawn up in your favor that therefore you had
+immediate right to what she left, and could run away with her effects
+before her body was cold? A will has to be proven, my good man, before
+an heir has any right to touch what it leaves. If you do not know this,
+why did you try to slink away like a thief, instead of walking out of
+the front door like a proprietor? Your manner convicts you, man; so down
+with the bundle, or I shall have to give you in charge of the constable
+as a thief.'
+
+"'You----!' he began, but stopped. Either his fears were touched or his
+cunning awakened, for after surveying me for a moment with mingled doubt
+and hatred, he suddenly altered his manner, till it became almost
+cringing, and muttering consolingly to himself, 'After all it is only a
+delay; everything will soon be mine,' he laid the bundle on the one
+board of the broken table beside us, adding with hypocritical meekness:
+'It was only some little keepsakes of my sister, not enough to make such
+a fuss about.'
+
+"'I will see to these _keepsakes_,' said I, and was about to raise the
+bundle, when he sprang upon me.
+
+"'You----you----!' he cried. 'What right have you to touch them or to
+look at them? Because you drew up the will, does that make you an
+authority here? I don't believe it, and I won't see you put on the airs
+of it. I will go for the constable myself. I am not afraid of the law. I
+will see who is master in this house where I have lived in wretched
+slavery for years, and of which I shall be soon the owner.'
+
+"'Very well,' said I, 'let us go find the constable.'
+
+"The calmness with which I uttered this seemed at once to abash and
+infuriate him.
+
+"He alternately cringed and ruffled himself, shuffling from one foot to
+the other till I could scarcely conceal the disgust with which he
+inspired me. At last he blurted forth with forced bravado:
+
+"'Have I any rights, or haven't I any rights! You think because I don't
+know the law, that you can make a fool of me, but you can't. I may have
+lived like a dog, and I may not have a good coat to my back, but I am
+the man to whom this property has been given, as no one knows better
+than yourself; and if I chose to lift my foot and kick you out of that
+door for calling me a thief, who would blame me?--answer me that.'
+
+"'No one,' said I, with a serenity equal to his fury, 'if this property
+is indeed to be yours, and if I know it as you say.'
+
+"Struck by the suggestion implied in these words, as by a blow in the
+face for which he was wholly unprepared, he recoiled for a moment,
+looking at me with mingled doubt and amazement.
+
+"'And do you mean to deny to my face, within an hour of the fact, and
+with the very witnesses to it still in the house, what you yourself
+wrote in this paper I now flaunt in your face? If so, _you_ are the
+fool, and I the cunning one, as you will yet see, Mr. Lawyer.'
+
+"I met his look with great calmness.
+
+"'The hour you speak of contained many minutes, Mr. Huckins; and it
+takes only a few for a woman to change her mind, and to record that
+change.'
+
+"'Her mind?' The stare of terror and dismay in his eyes was contradicted
+by the laugh on his lips. 'What mind had she after I left her? She
+couldn't even speak. You cannot frighten me.'
+
+"'Mr. Huckins,' I now said, beckoning to the two witnesses whom our
+loud talking had guided to the spot where we were, 'I have thought best
+to tell you what some men might have thought it more expedient perhaps
+to conceal. Mrs. Wakeham, who evidently felt herself unduly influenced
+by you in the making of that will you hold in your hand, immediately
+upon your withdrawal testified her desire to make another, and as I had
+no interest in the case save the desire to fulfil her real wishes, I at
+once complied with her request, and formally drew up a second will more
+in consonance with her evident desires.'
+
+"'It is a lie, a lie; you are deceiving me!' shrieked the unhappy man,
+taken wholly by surprise. 'She couldn't utter a word; her tongue was
+paralyzed; how could you know her wishes?'
+
+"'Mrs. Wakeham had some of the cunning of her brother,' I observed. 'She
+knew when to play dumb and when to speak. She talked very well when
+released from the influence of your presence.'
+
+"Overwhelmed, he cast one glance at the two witnesses, who by this time
+had stepped to my side, and reading confirmation in the severity of
+their looks, he fell slowly back against the table where he stood
+leaning heavily, with his head fallen on his breast.
+
+"'Who has she given the house to?' he asked at last faintly, almost
+humbly.
+
+"'That I have no right to tell you,' I answered. 'When the will is
+offered for probate you will know; that is all the comfort I can give
+you.'
+
+"'She has left nothing to me, that much I see,' he bitterly exclaimed;
+and his head, lifted with momentary passion, fell again. 'Ten years gone
+to the dogs,' he murmured; 'ten years, and not a cent in reward! It is
+enough to make a man mad.' Suddenly he started forward in irrepressible
+passion. 'You talk about influence,' he cried, 'my influence; what
+influence did _you_ have upon her? Some, or she would never have dared
+to contradict her dying words in that way. But I'll have it out with you
+in the courts. I'll never submit to being robbed in this way.'
+
+"'You do not know that you are robbed,' said I, 'wait till you hear the
+will.'
+
+"'The will? This is her will!' he shrieked, waving before him the paper
+that he held; 'I will not believe in any other; I will not acknowledge
+any other.'
+
+"'You may have to,' now spoke up Mr. Dickey in strong and hearty tones;
+'and if I might advise you as a neighbor, I would say that the stiller
+you keep now the better it probably will be for you in the future. You
+have not earned a good enough reputation among us for disinterestedness
+to bluster in this way about your rights.'
+
+"'I don't want any talk from you,' was Huckins' quick reply, but these
+words from one who had the ears of the community in which he lived had
+nevertheless produced their effect; for his manner changed and it was
+with quite a softened air that he finally put up the paper in his pocket
+and said: 'I beg pardon if I have talked too loud and passionately. But
+the property was given to me and it shall not be taken away if any fight
+on my part can keep it. So let me see you all go, for I presume you do
+not intend to take up your abode in this house just yet.'
+
+"'No,' I retorted with some significance, 'though it might be worth our
+while. It may contain more keepsakes; I presume there are one or two
+boards yet that have not been ripped up from the floors.' Then ashamed
+of what was perhaps an unnecessary taunt, I hastened to add: 'My reason
+for telling you of the existence of a second will is that you might no
+longer make the one you hold an excuse for rifling these premises and
+abstracting their contents. Nothing here is yours--yet; and till you
+inherit, if ever you do inherit, any attempt to hide or carry away one
+article which is not manifestly your own, will be regarded by the law as
+a theft and will be punished as such. But,' I went on, seeking to still
+further mitigate language calculated to arouse any man's rage, whether
+he was a villain or not, 'you have too much sense, and doubtless too
+much honesty to carry out such intentions now you know that you have
+lost whatever rights you considered yourself to possess, so I will say
+no more about it but at once make my proposition, which is that we give
+this box into the charge of Mr. Dickey, who will stand surety for it
+till your sister can be found. If you agree to this----'
+
+"'But I won't agree,' broke in Huckins, furiously. 'Do you think I am a
+fool? The box is mine, I say, and----'
+
+"'Or perhaps,' I calmly interrupted, 'you would prefer the constable to
+come and take both it and the house in charge. This would better please
+me. Shall I send for the constable?'
+
+"'No, no,----you! Do you want to make a prison-bird of me at once?'
+
+"'I do not want to,' said I, 'but the circumstances force me to it. A
+house which has given up one treasure may give up another, and for this
+other I am accountable. Now as I cannot stay here myself to watch over
+the place, it necessarily follows that I must provide some one who can.
+And as an honest man you ought to desire this also. If you felt as I
+would under the circumstances, you would ask for the company of some
+disinterested person till our rival claims as executors had been duly
+settled and the right heir determined upon.'
+
+"'But the constable? I don't want any constable.'
+
+"'And you don't want Mr. Dickey?'
+
+"'He's better than the constable.'
+
+"'Very well; Mr. Dickey, will you stay?'
+
+"'Yes, I'll stay; that's right, isn't it, Susan?'
+
+"Miss Thompson who had been looking somewhat uneasy, brightened up as he
+spoke and answered cheerfully:
+
+"'Yes, that's right. But who will see me home?'
+
+"'Can you ask?' I inquired.
+
+"She smiled and the matter was settled.
+
+"In the hall I had the chance to whisper to Mr. Dickey:
+
+"'Keep a sharp lookout on the fellow. I do not trust him, and he may be
+up to tricks. I will notify the constable of the situation and if you
+want help throw up a window and whistle. The man may make another
+attempt to rob the premises.'
+
+"'That is so,' was the whispered reply. 'But he will have to play sharp
+to get ahead of me.'"
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+DIFFICULTIES.
+
+
+"During the short walk that ensued we talked much of the dead widow and
+her sinister brother.
+
+"'They belong to an old family,' observed Miss Thompson, 'and I have
+heard my mother tell how she has danced in their house at many a ball in
+the olden times. But ever since my day the place has borne evidences of
+decay, though it is only in the last five years it has looked as if it
+would fall to pieces. Which of them do you think was the real miser, he
+or she? Neither of them have had anything to do with their neighbors for
+ten years at least.'
+
+"'Do not you know?' I asked.
+
+"'No,' said she, 'and yet I have always lived in full view of their
+house. You see there were years in which no one lived there. Mr.
+Wakeham, who married this woman about the time father married mother,
+was a great invalid, and it was not till his death that the widow came
+back here to live. The father, who was a stern old man, I have heard
+mother tell, gave his property to her because she was the only one of
+his children who had not displeased him, but when she was a widow this
+brother came back to live with her, or on her, we have never been able
+to determine which. I think from what I have seen to-night it must have
+been on her, but she was very close too, or why did she live like a
+hermit when she could have had the friendship of the best?'
+
+"'Perhaps because her brother overruled her; he has evidently had an eye
+on this property for a long time.'
+
+"'Yes, but they have not even had the comforts. For three years at least
+no one has seen a butcher's cart stop at their door. How they have lived
+none of us know; yet there was no lack of money or their neighbors would
+have felt it their duty to look after them. Mrs. Wakeham has owned very
+valuable stocks, and as for her dividends, we know by what the
+postmaster says that they came regularly.'
+
+"'This is very interesting,' said I. 'I thought that fellow's eyes
+showed a great deal of greed for the little he was likely to inherit. Is
+there no one who is fully acquainted with their affairs, or have they
+lived so long out of the pale of society that they possess no friends?'
+
+"'I do not know of any one who has ever been honored with their
+confidence,' quoth the young lady. 'They have shown so plainly that they
+did not desire attention that gradually we have all ceased to go to
+their doors.'
+
+"'And did not sickness make any difference? Did no one go near them
+when it was learned how ill this poor woman was?'
+
+"'We did not know she was ill till this morning. We had missed her face
+at the window, but no doctor had been called, and no medicine bought, so
+we never thought her to be in any danger. When we did find it out we
+were afraid to invade premises which had been so long shut against us;
+at least I was; others did go, but they were received so coldly they did
+not remain; it is hard to stand up against the sullen displeasure of a
+man like Mr. Huckins.'
+
+"'And do you mean to say that this man and his sister have lived there
+alone and unvisited for years?'
+
+"'They wished it, Mr. Etheridge. They courted loneliness and rejected
+friendship. Only one person, Mr. H----, the minister, has persisted in
+keeping up his old habit of calling once a year, but I have heard him
+say that he always dreaded the visit, first, because they made him see
+so plainly that they resented the intrusion, and, secondly, because each
+year showed him barer floors and greater evidences of poverty or
+determined avarice. What he will say now, when he hears about the two
+wills and the brother trying to run away with his sister's savings,
+before her body was cold, I do not know. There will be some indignation
+felt in town you may be sure, and considerable excitement. I hope you
+will come back to-morrow to help me answer questions.'
+
+"'I shall come back as soon as I have been to Marston.'
+
+"'So you are going to hunt up the heirs? I pray you may be successful.'
+
+"'Do you know them? Have you ever heard anything about them?' I asked.
+
+"'Oh, no. It must be forty years since Harriet Huckins ran away from
+home. To many it will be a revelation that such a person lives.'
+
+"'And we do not even know that she does,' said I.
+
+"'True, true, she may be dead, and then that hateful brother will have
+the whole. I hope he won't. I hope she is alive and will come here and
+make amends for the disgrace which that unsightly building has put upon
+the street.'
+
+"'I hope so too,' said I, feeling my old disgust of Huckins renewed at
+this mention of him.
+
+"We were now at her gate, so bidding her good-by, I turned away through
+the midnight streets, determined to find the constable. As I went
+hurrying along in the direction of his home, Miss Thompson's question
+repeated itself in my own mind. Had Mrs. Wakeham been the sufferer and
+victim which her appearance, yes and her words to me, had betokened? Or
+was her brother sincere in his passion and true in his complaints that
+he had been subject to her whims and had led the life of a dog in order
+to please her. With the remembrance of their two faces before me, I felt
+inclined to believe her words rather than his, and yet her last cry had
+contained something in its tone beside anxiety for the rights of an
+almost unknown heir; there had been anger in it,--the anger of one whose
+secret has been surprised and who feels himself personally robbed of
+something dearer than life.
+
+"However, at this time I could not stop to weigh these possibilities or
+decide this question. Whatever was true as regarded the balance of right
+between these two, there was no doubt as to the fact that this man was
+not to be trusted under temptation. I therefore made what haste I could,
+and being fortunate enough to find the constable still up, succeeded in
+interesting him in the matter and obtaining his promise to have the
+house put under proper surveillance. This done, I took the car for
+Fulton Ferry, and was so fortunate as to reach home at or near two
+o'clock in the morning. This was last night, and to-day you see me here.
+You disappoint me by saying that you know no one by the name of Harriet
+Smith."
+
+"Yet," exclaimed Edgar, rousing himself from his attitude of listening,
+"I know all the old inhabitants. Harriet Smith," he continued in a
+musing tone, "Harriet--What is there in the name that stirs up some
+faint recollection? Did I once know a person by that name after all?"
+
+"Nothing more likely."
+
+"But there the thing stops. I cannot get any farther," mused Edgar. "The
+name is not entirely new to me. I have some vague memory in connection
+with it, but what memory I cannot tell. Let me see if Jerry can help
+us." And going to the door, he called "Jerry! Jerry!"
+
+The response came slowly; heavy bodies do not soon overcome their
+inertia. But after the lapse of a few minutes a shuffling footstep was
+heard. Then the sound of heavy breathing, something between a snore and
+a snort, and the huge form of the good-natured driver came slowly into
+view, till it paused and stood in the door opening, which it very nearly
+filled.
+
+"Did you call, sirs?" asked he, with a rude attempt at a bow.
+
+"Yes," responded Edgar, "I wanted to know if you remembered a woman by
+the name of Harriet Smith once living about here."
+
+"Har-ri-et Smith," was the long-drawn-out reply; "Har-ri-et Smith! I
+knows lots of Harriets, and as for Smiths, they be as plenty as
+squirrels in nut time; but Har-ri-et Smith--I wouldn't like to say I
+didn't, and I wouldn't like to say I did."
+
+"She is an old woman now, if she is still living," suggested Frank. "Or
+she may have moved away."
+
+"Yes, sir, yes, of course"; and they perceived another slow Harriet
+begin to form itself upon his lips.
+
+Seeing that he knew nothing of the person mentioned, Edgar motioned him
+away, but Frank, with a lawyer's belief in using all means at his
+command, stopped him as he was heavily turning his back and said:
+
+"I have good news for a woman by that name. If you can find her, and she
+turns out to be a sister of Cynthia Wakeham, of Flatbush, New York,
+there will be something good for you too. Do you want to try for it?"
+
+"Do I?" and the grin which appeared on Jerry's face seemed to light up
+the room. "I'm not quick," he hastily acknowledged, as if in fear that
+Frank would observe this fault and make use of it against him; "that is,
+I'm not spry on my feet, but that leaves me all the more time for
+gossip, and gossip is what'll do _this_ business, isn't it, Dr.
+Sellick?" Edgar nodding, Jerry laughed, and Frank, seeing he had got an
+interested assistant at last, gave him such instructions as he thought
+he needed, and dismissed him to his work.
+
+When he was gone, the friends looked for an instant at each other, and
+then Frank rose.
+
+"I am going out," said he. "If you have friends to see or business to
+look after, don't think you must come with me. I always take a walk
+before retiring."
+
+"Very well," replied Edgar, with unusual cheeriness. "Then if you will
+excuse me I'll not accompany you. Going to walk for pleasure? You'd
+better take the road north; the walk in that direction is the best in
+town."
+
+"All right," returned Frank; "I'll not be gone more than an hour. See
+you again in the morning if not to-night." And with a careless nod he
+disappeared, leaving Edgar sitting alone in the room.
+
+On the walk in front of the house he paused.
+
+"To the north," he repeated, looking up and down the street, with a
+curious shake of the head; "good advice, no doubt, and one that I will
+follow some time, but not to-night. The attractions in an opposite
+direction are too great." And with an odd smile, which was at once full
+of manly confidence and dreamy anticipation, he turned his face
+southward and strode away through the warm and perfumed darkness of the
+summer night.
+
+He took the road by which he had come from the depot, and passing
+rapidly by the few shops that clustered about the hotel, entered at once
+upon the street whose picturesque appearance had attracted his attention
+earlier in the evening.
+
+What is he seeking? Exercise--the exhilaration of motion--the
+refreshment of change? If so, why does he look behind and before him
+with an almost guilty air as he advances towards a dimly lighted house,
+guarded by the dense branches of a double row of poplars? Is it here the
+attraction lies which has drawn him from the hotel and the companionship
+of his friend? Yes, for he stops as he reaches it and gazes first along
+the dim shadowy vista made by those clustered trunks and upright boughs,
+and then up the side and across the front of the silent house itself,
+while an expression of strange wistfulness softens the eager brightness
+of his face, and his smile becomes one of mingled pride and tenderness,
+for which the peaceful scene, with all its picturesque features, can
+scarcely account.
+
+Can it be that his imagination has been roused and his affections
+stirred by the instantaneous vision of an almost unknown woman? that
+this swelling of the heart and this sudden turning of his whole nature
+towards what is sweetest, holiest, and most endearing in life means that
+his hitherto free spirit has met its mate, and that here in the lonely
+darkness, before a strange portal and in the midst of new and untried
+scenes, he has found the fate that comes once to every man, making him a
+changed being for ever after?
+
+The month is June and the air is full of the scent of roses. He can see
+their fairy forms shining from amid the vines clambering over the walls
+and porches before him. They suggest all that is richest and spiciest
+and most exquisite in nature, as does her face as he remembered it. What
+if a thorn has rent a petal here and there, in the luxurious flowers
+before him, are they not roses still? So to him her face is all the
+lovelier for the blemish which might speak to others of imperfection,
+but which to him is only a call for profounder tenderness and more
+ardent devotion. And if in her nature there lies a fault also, is not a
+man's first love potent enough to overlook even that? He begins to think
+so, and allows his glances to roam from window to window of the nearly
+darkened house, as if half expecting her sweet and melancholy head to
+look forth in quest of the stars--or him.
+
+The living rooms are mainly on the side that overlooks the garden, and
+scarcely understanding by what impulse he is swayed, he passes around
+the wall to a second gate, which he perceives opening at right angles to
+the poplar walk. Here he pauses a moment, looking up at the window which
+for some reason he has determined to be hers, and while he stands there,
+the moonlight shows the figure of another man coming from the highway
+and making towards the self-same spot. But before this second person
+reaches Frank he pauses, falters, and finally withdraws. Who is it? The
+shadow is on his face and we cannot see, but one thing is apparent,
+Frank Etheridge is not the only man who worships at this especial shrine
+to-night.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+YOUNG MEN'S FANCIES.
+
+
+The next morning at about nine o'clock Frank burst impetuously into
+Edgar's presence. They had not met for a good-night the evening before
+and they had taken breakfast separately.
+
+"Edgar, what is this I hear about Hermione Cavanagh? Is it true she
+lives alone in that house with her sister, and that they neither of them
+ever go out, not even for a half-hour's stroll in the streets?"
+
+Edgar, flushed at the other's excitement, turned and busied himself a
+moment with his books and papers before replying.
+
+"Frank, you have been among the gossips."
+
+"And what if I have! You would tell me nothing, and I knew there was a
+tragedy in her face; I saw it at the first glance."
+
+"Is it a tragedy, this not going out?"
+
+"It is the result of a tragedy; must be. They say nothing and nobody
+could draw from her beyond the boundary of that brick wall we rode by so
+carelessly. And she so young, so beautiful!"
+
+"Frank, you exaggerate," was all the answer he received.
+
+Frank bit his lip; the phrase he had used had been a trifle strong for
+the occasion. But in another moment he was ready to continue the
+conversation.
+
+"Perhaps I do speak of an experiment that has never been tried; but you
+know what I mean. She has received some shock which has terrified her
+and made her afraid of the streets, and no one can subdue this fear or
+induce her to step through her own gate. Is not that sad and interesting
+enough to move a man who recognizes her beauty?"
+
+"It is certainly very sad," quoth the other, "if it is quite true, which
+I doubt."
+
+"Go talk to your neighbors then; they have not been absent like yourself
+for a good long year."
+
+"I am not interested enough," the other began.
+
+"But you ought to be," interpolated Frank. "As a physician you ought to
+recognize the peculiarities of such a prejudice. Why, if I had such a
+case----"
+
+"But the case is not mine. I am not and never have been Miss Cavanagh's
+physician."
+
+"Well, well, her friend then."
+
+"Who told you I was her friend?"
+
+"I don't remember; I understood from some one that you used to visit
+her."
+
+"My neighbors, as you call them, have good memories."
+
+"_Did_ you use to visit her?"
+
+"Frank, Frank, subdue your curiosity. If I did, I do not now. The old
+gentleman is dead, and it was he upon whom I was accustomed to call when
+I went to their house."
+
+"The old gentleman?"
+
+"Miss Cavanagh's father."
+
+"And you called upon him?"
+
+"Sometimes."
+
+"Edgar, how short you are."
+
+"Frank, how impatient you are."
+
+"But I have reason."
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"I want to hear about her, and you mock me with the most evasive
+replies."
+
+Edgar turned towards his friend; the flush had departed from his
+features, but his manner certainly was not natural. Yet he did not look
+unkindly at the ardent young lawyer. On the contrary, there was a gleam
+of compassion in his eye, as he remarked, with more emphasis than he had
+before used:
+
+"I am sorry if I seem to be evading any question you choose to put. But
+the truth is you seem to know more about the young lady than I do
+myself. I did not know that she was the victim of any such caprice."
+
+"Yet it has lasted a year."
+
+"A year?"
+
+"Just the time you have been away."
+
+"Just----" Edgar paused in the repetition. Evidently his attention had
+been caught at last. But he soon recovered himself. "A strange
+coincidence," he laughed. "Happily it is nothing more."
+
+Frank surveyed his friend very seriously.
+
+"I shall believe you," said he.
+
+"You may," was the candid rejoinder. And the young physician did not
+flinch, though Etheridge continued to look at him steadily and with
+undoubted intention. "And now what luck with Jerry?" he suddenly
+inquired, with a cheerful change of tone.
+
+"None; I shall leave town at ten."
+
+"Is there no Harriet Smith here?"
+
+"Not if I can believe him."
+
+"And has been none in the last twenty years?"
+
+"Not that he can find out."
+
+"Then your quest here is at an end?"
+
+"No, it has taken another turn, that is all."
+
+"You mean----"
+
+"That I shall come back here to-morrow. I must be sure that what Jerry
+says is true. Besides---- But why mince the matter? I--I have become
+interested in that girl, Edgar, and want to know her--hear her speak.
+Cannot you help me to make her acquaintance? If you used to go to the
+house---- Why do you frown? Do you not like Miss Cavanagh? "
+
+Edgar hastily smoothed his forehead.
+
+"Frank, I have never thought very much about her. She was young when I
+visited her father, and then that scar----"
+
+"Never mind," cried Frank. He felt as if a wound in his own breast had
+been touched.
+
+Edgar was astonished. He was not accustomed to display his own feelings,
+and did not know what to make of a man who did. But he did not finish
+his sentence.
+
+"If she does not go out," he observed instead, "she may be equally
+unwilling to receive visitors."
+
+"Oh, no," the other eagerly broke in; "people visit there just the same.
+Only they say she never likes to hear anything about her peculiarity.
+She wishes it accepted without words."
+
+It was now Edgar's turn to ask a question.
+
+"You say she lives there alone? You mean with servants, doubtless?"
+
+"Oh, yes, she has a servant. But I did not say she lived there alone; I
+said she and her sister."
+
+Edgar was silent.
+
+"Her sister does not go out, either, they say."
+
+"No? What does it all mean?"
+
+"That is what _I_ want to know."
+
+"Not go out? Emma!"
+
+"Do you remember _Emma_?"
+
+"Yes, she is younger than Hermione."
+
+"And what kind of a girl is _she_?"
+
+"Don't ask me, Frank. I have no talent for describing beautiful women."
+
+"She is beautiful, then?"
+
+"If her sister is, yes."
+
+"You mean _she_ has no scar." It was softly said, almost reverently.
+
+"No, she has no scar."
+
+Frank shook his head.
+
+"The scar appeals to me, Edgar."
+
+Edgar smiled, but it was not naturally. The constraint in his manner had
+increased rather than diminished, and he seemed anxious to start upon
+the round of calls he had purposed to make.
+
+"You must excuse me," said he, "I shall have to be off. You are coming
+back to-morrow?"
+
+"If business does not detain me."
+
+"You will find me in my new office by that time. I have rented the small
+brown house you must have noticed on the main street. Come there, and if
+you do not mind bachelor housekeeping, stay with me while you remain in
+town. I shall have a good cook, you may be sure, and as for a room, the
+north chamber has already been set apart for you."
+
+Frank's face softened and he grasped the doctor's hand.
+
+"That's good of you; it looks as if you expected me to need it."
+
+"Have you not a Harriet Smith to find?"
+
+Frank shrugged his shoulders. "I see that you understand lawyers."
+
+Frank rode down to the depot with Jerry. As he passed Miss Cavanagh's
+house he was startled to perceive a youthful figure bending over the
+flower-beds on the inner side of the wall. "She is not so pretty by
+daylight," was his first thought. But at that moment she raised her
+head, and with a warm thrill he recognized the fact that it was not
+Hermione, but the sister he was looking at.
+
+It gave him something to think of, for this sister was not without her
+attractions, though they were less brilliant and also less marred than
+those of the sad and stately Hermione.
+
+When he arrived at his office his first inquiry was if anything had been
+heard from Flatbush, and upon being told to the contrary he immediately
+started for that place. He found the house a scene of some tumult.
+Notwithstanding the fact that the poor woman still lay unburied, the
+parlors and lower hall were filled with people, who stared at the walls
+and rapped with wary but eager knuckles on the various lintels and
+casements. Whispers of a treasure having been found beneath the boards
+of the flooring had reached the ear of the public, and the greatest
+curiosity had been raised in the breasts of those who up to this day had
+looked upon the house as a worm-eaten structure fit only for the shelter
+of dogs.
+
+Mr. Dickey was in a room above, and to him Frank immediately hastened.
+
+"Well," said he, "what news?"
+
+"Ah," cried the jovial witness, coming forward, "glad to see you. Have
+you found the heirs?"
+
+"Not yet," rejoined Frank. "Have you had any trouble? I thought I saw a
+police-officer below."
+
+"Yes, we had to have some one with authority here. Even Huckins agreed
+to that; he is afraid the house will be run away with, I think. Did you
+see what a crowd has assembled in the parlors? We let them in so that
+Huckins won't seem to be the sole object of suspicion; but he really is,
+you know. He gave me plenty to do that night."
+
+"He did, did he?"
+
+"Yes; you had scarcely gone before he began his tactics. First he led
+me very politely to a room where there was a bed; then he brought me a
+bottle of the vilest rum you ever drank; and then he sat down to be
+affable. While he talked I was at ease, but when he finally got up and
+said he would try to get a snatch of sleep I grew suspicious, and
+stopped drinking the rum and set myself to listening. He went directly
+to a room not far from me and shut himself in. He had no light, but in a
+few minutes I heard him strike a match, and then another and another.
+'He is searching under the boards for more treasure,' thought I, and
+creeping into the next room I was fortunate enough to come upon a closet
+so old and with such big cracks in its partition that I was enabled to
+look through them into the place where he was. The sight that met my eye
+was startling. He was, as I conjectured, peering under the boards, which
+he had ripped up early in the evening; and as he had only the light of a
+match to aid him, I would catch quick glimpses of his eager, peering
+face and then lose the sight of it in sudden darkness till the gleam of
+another match came to show it up again. He crouched upon the floor and
+crept along the whole length of the board, thrusting in his arm to right
+and left, while the sweat oozed on his forehead and fell in large drops
+into the long, narrow hollow beneath him. At last he seemed to grow wild
+with repeated disappointments, and, starting up, stood looking about him
+at the four surrounding walls, as if demanding them to give up their
+secrets. Then the match went out, and I heard him stamp his foot with
+rage before proceeding to put back the boards and shift them into place.
+Then there came silence, during which I crept on tiptoe to the place I
+had left, judging that he would soon leave his room and return to see if
+I had been watching him.
+
+"The box was on the bed, and throwing myself beside it, I grasped it
+with one arm and hid my face with the other, and as I lay there I soon
+became conscious of his presence, and I knew he was looking from me to
+the box, and weighing the question as to whether I was sleeping sound
+enough for him to risk a blow. But I did not stir, though I almost
+expected a sudden crash on my head, and in another moment he crept away,
+awed possibly by my superior strength, for I am a much bigger man than
+he, as you must see. When I thought him gone I dropped my arm and looked
+up. The room was in total darkness. Bounding to my feet I followed him
+through the halls and came upon him in the room of death. He had the
+lamp in his hand, and he was standing over his sister with an awful look
+on his face.
+
+"'Where have you hidden it?' he hissed to the senseless form before him.
+'That box is not all you had. Where are the bonds and the stocks, and
+the money I helped you to save?'
+
+"He was so absorbed he did not see me. He stooped by the bed and ran his
+hand along under the mattresses; then he lifted the pillows and looked
+under the bed. Then he rose and trod gingerly over the floor, as if to
+see if any of the boards were loose, and peered into the empty closet,
+and felt with wary hand up and down the mantel sides. At last his eyes
+fell on the clock, and he was about to lift his hand to it when I said:
+
+"'The clock is all right; you needn't set it; see, it just agrees with
+my watch!'
+
+"What a face he turned to me! I tell you it is no fun to meet such eyes
+in an empty house at one o'clock at night; and if you hadn't told me the
+police would be within call I should have been sick enough of my job, I
+can tell you. As it was, I drew back a foot or two and hugged the box a
+little more tightly, while he, with a coward's bravado, stepped after me
+and whispered below his breath:
+
+"'You are making yourself too much at home here. If I want to stop the
+clock, now that my sister is dead, what is that to you? You have no
+respect for a house in mourning, and I am free to tell you so.'
+
+"To this tirade I naturally made no answer, and he turned again to the
+clock. But just as I was asking myself whether I should stop him or let
+him go on with his peerings and pokings, the bell rang loudly below. It
+was a welcome interruption to me, but it made him very angry. However,
+he went down and welcomed, as decently as he knew how, a woman who had
+been sent to his assistance by Miss Thompson, evidently thinking that it
+was time he made some effort to regain my good opinion by avoiding all
+further cause for suspicion.
+
+"At all events, he gave me no more trouble that night, nor since, though
+the way he haunts the door of that room and the looks he casts inside at
+the clock are enough to make one's blood run cold. Do you think there
+are any papers hidden there?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it," returned Frank. "Do you remember that the old
+woman's last words were, 'The clock! the clock!' As soon as I can appeal
+to the Surrogate I shall have that piece of furniture examined."
+
+"I shall be mortally interested in knowing what you find there,"
+commented Mr. Dickey. "If the property comes to much, won't Miss
+Thompson and I get something out of it for our trouble?"
+
+"No doubt," said Frank.
+
+"Then we will get married," said he, and looked so beaming, that Frank
+shook him cordially by the hand.
+
+"But where is Huckins?" the lawyer now inquired. "I didn't see him down
+below."
+
+"He is chewing his nails in the kitchen. He is like a dog with a bone;
+you cannot get him to leave the house for a moment."
+
+"I must see him," said Frank, and went down the back stairs to the place
+where he had held his previous interview with this angry and
+disappointed man.
+
+At first sight of the young lawyer Huckins flushed deeply, but he soon
+grew pale and obsequious, as if he had held bitter communing with
+himself through the last thirty-six hours, and had resolved to restrain
+his temper for the future in the presence of the man who understood him.
+But he could not help a covert sneer from creeping into his voice.
+
+"Have you found the heirs?" he asked, bowing with ill-mannered grace,
+and pushing forward the only chair there was in the room.
+
+"I shall find them when I need them," rejoined Frank. "Fortunes, however
+small, do not usually go begging."
+
+"Then you have not found them?" the other declared, a hard glitter of
+triumph shining in his sinister eye.
+
+"I have not brought them with me," acknowledged the lawyer, warily.
+
+"Perhaps, then, you won't," suggested Huckins, while he seemed to grow
+instantly at least two inches in stature. "If they are not in Marston
+where are they? Dead! And that leaves me the undisputed heir to all my
+sister's savings."
+
+"I do not believe them dead," protested Frank.
+
+"Why?" Huckins half smiled, half snarled.
+
+"Some token of the fact would have come to you. You are not in a strange
+land or in unknown parts; you are living in the old homestead where this
+lost sister of yours was reared. You would have heard if she had died,
+at least so it strikes an unprejudiced mind."
+
+"Then let it strike yours to the contrary," snapped out his angry
+companion. "When she went away it was in anger and with the curse of her
+father ringing in her ears. Do you see that porch?" And Huckins pointed
+through the cracked windows to a decayed pair of steps leading from the
+side of the house. "It was there she ran down on her way out. I see her
+now, though forty years have passed, and I, a little fellow of six,
+neither understood nor appreciated what was happening. My father stood
+in the window above, and he cried out: 'Don't come back! You have chosen
+your way, now go in it. Let me never see you nor hear from you again.'
+And we never did, never! And now you tell me we would have heard if she
+had died. You don't know the heart of folks if you say that. Harriet cut
+herself adrift that day, and she knew it."
+
+"Yet you were acquainted with the fact that she went to Marston."
+
+The indignant light in the brother's eye settled into a look of cunning.
+
+"Oh," he acknowledged carelessly, "we heard so at the time, when
+everything was fresh. But we heard nothing more, nothing."
+
+"Nothing?" Frank repeated. "Not that she had married and had had
+children?"
+
+"No," was the dogged reply. "My sister up there," and Huckins jerked his
+hand towards the room where poor Mrs. Wakeham lay, "surmised things, but
+she didn't know anything for certain. If she had she might have sent for
+these folks long ago. She had time enough in the last ten years we have
+been living in this hole together."
+
+"But," Etheridge now ventured, determined not to be outmatched in
+cunning, "you say she was penurious, too penurious to live comfortably
+or to let you do so."
+
+Huckins shrugged his shoulders and for a moment looked balked; then he
+cried: "The closest women have their whims. If she had known any such
+folks to have been living as you have named, she would have sent for
+them."
+
+"If you had let her," suggested Frank.
+
+Huckins turned upon him and his eye flashed. But he very soon cringed
+again and attempted a sickly smile, which completed the disgust the
+young lawyer felt for him.
+
+"If I had let her," he repeated; "I, who pined for companionship or
+anything which would have put a good meal into my mouth! You do not know
+me, sir; you are prejudiced against me because I want my earnings, and a
+little comfort in my old age."
+
+"If I am prejudiced against you, it is yourself who has made me so,"
+returned the other. "Your conduct has not been of a nature to win my
+regard, since I have had the honor of your acquaintance."
+
+"And what has yours been, worming, as you have, into my sister's
+confidence----"
+
+But here Frank hushed him. "We will drop this," said he. "You know me,
+and I think I know you. I came to give you one last chance to play the
+man by helping me to find your relatives. I see you have no intention of
+doing so, so I will now proceed to find them without you."
+
+"If they exist," he put in.
+
+"Certainly, if they exist. If they do not----"
+
+"What then?"
+
+"I must have proofs to that effect. I must know that your sister left no
+heirs but yourself."
+
+"That will take time," he grumbled. "I shall be kept weeks out of my
+rights."
+
+"The Surrogate will see that you do not suffer."
+
+He shuddered and looked like a fox driven into his hole.
+
+"It is shameful, shameful!" he cried. "It is nothing but a conspiracy
+to rob me of my own. I suppose I shall not be allowed to live in my own
+house." And his eyes wandered greedily over the rafters above him.
+
+"Are you sure that it is yours?"
+
+"Yes, yes, damn you!" But the word had been hasty, and he immediately
+caught Frank's sleeve and cringed in contrition. "I beg your pardon," he
+cried, "perhaps we had better not talk any longer, for I have been too
+tried for patience. They will not even leave me alone in my grief," he
+whined, pointing towards the rooms full, as I have said, of jostling
+neighbors and gossips.
+
+"It will be quiet enough after the funeral," Frank assured him.
+
+"Oh! oh! the funeral!" he groaned.
+
+"Is it going to be too extravagant?" Frank insinuated artfully.
+
+Huckins gave the lawyer a look, dropped his eyes and mournfully shook
+his head.
+
+"The poor woman would not have liked it," he muttered; "but one must be
+decent towards one's own blood."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+THE WAY OPENS.
+
+
+Frank succeeded in having Mr. Dickey appointed as Custodian of the
+property, then he went back to Marston.
+
+"Good-evening, Doctor; what a nest of roses you have here for a
+bachelor," was his jovial cry, as he entered the quaint little house, in
+which Sellick had now established himself. "I declare, when you told me
+I should always find a room here, I did not realize what a temptation
+you were offering me. And in sight----" He paused, changing color as he
+drew back from the window to which he had stepped,----"of the hills," he
+somewhat awkwardly added.
+
+Edgar, who had watched the movements of his friend from under half
+lowered lids, smiled dryly.
+
+"_Of the hills_," he repeated. Then with a short laugh, added, "I knew
+that you liked that especial view."
+
+Frank's eye, which was still on a certain distant chimney, lighted up
+wonderfully as he turned genially towards his friend.
+
+"I did not know you were such a good fellow," he laughed. "I hope you
+have found yourself made welcome here."
+
+"Oh, yes, welcome enough."
+
+"Any patients yet?"
+
+"All of Dudgeon's, I fear. I have been doing little else but warning one
+man after another: 'Now, no words against any former practitioner. If
+you want help from me, tell me your symptoms, but don't talk about any
+other doctor's mistakes, for I have not time to hear it.'"
+
+"Poor old Dudgeon!" cried Frank. Then, shortly: "I'm a poor one to hide
+my impatience. Have you seen either of _them_ yet?"
+
+"Either--of--them?"
+
+"The girls, the two sweet whimsical girls. You know whom I mean, Edgar."
+
+"You only spoke of one when you were here before, Frank."
+
+"And I only think of one. But I saw the other on my way to the depot,
+and that made me speak of the two. Have you seen them?"
+
+"No," answered the other, with unnecessary dryness; "I think you told me
+they did not go out."
+
+"But you have feet, man, and you can go to them, and I trusted that you
+would, if only to prepare the way for me; for I mean to visit them, as
+you have every reason to believe, and I should have liked an
+introducer."
+
+"Frank," asked the other, quietly, but with a certain marked
+earnestness, "has it gone as deep as that? Are you really serious in
+your intention of making the acquaintance of Miss Cavanagh?"
+
+"Serious? Have you for a minute thought me otherwise?"
+
+"You are not serious in most things."
+
+"In business I am, and in----"
+
+"Love?" the other smiled.
+
+"Yes, if you can call it love, yet."
+
+"We will not call it anything," said the other. "You want to see her,
+that is all. I wonder at your decision, but can say nothing against it.
+Happily, you have seen her defect."
+
+"It is not a defect to me."
+
+"Not if it is in her nature as well?"
+
+"Her nature?"
+
+"A woman who for any reason cuts herself off from her species, as she is
+said to do, cannot be without her faults. Such idiosyncrasies do not
+grow out of the charity we are bid to have for our fellow-creatures."
+
+"But she may have suffered. I can readily believe she has suffered from
+that same want of charity in others. There is nothing like a personal
+defect to make one sensitive. Think of the averted looks she must have
+met from many thoughtless persons; and she almost a beauty!"
+
+"Yes, that _almost_ is tragic."
+
+"It can excuse much."
+
+Edgar shook his head. "Think what you are doing, Frank, that's all. _I_
+should hesitate in making the acquaintance of one who for _any_ reason
+has shut herself away from the world."
+
+"Is not her whim shared by her sister?"
+
+"They say so."
+
+"Then there are two whose acquaintance you would hesitate to make?"
+
+"Certainly, if I had any ulterior purpose beyond that of mere
+acquaintanceship."
+
+"Her sister has no scar?"
+
+Edgar, weary, perhaps, of the conversation, did not answer.
+
+"Why should she shut herself up?" mused Frank, too interested in the
+subject to note the other's silence.
+
+"Women are mysteries," quoth Edgar, shortly.
+
+"But this is more than a mystery," cried Frank. "Whim will not account
+for it. There must be something in the history of these two girls which
+the world does not know."
+
+"That is not the fault of the world," retorted Edgar, in his usual vein
+of sarcasm.
+
+But Frank was reckless. "The world is right to be interested," he
+avowed. "It would take a very cold heart not to be moved with curiosity
+by such a fact as two girls secluding themselves in their own house,
+without any manifest reason. Are _you_ not moved by it, Edgar? Are you,
+indeed, as indifferent as you seem?"
+
+"I should like to know why they do this, of course, but I shall not busy
+myself to find out. I have much else to do."
+
+"Well, I have not. It is the one thing in life for me; so look out for
+some great piece of audacity on my part, for speak to her I will, and
+that, too, before I leave the town."
+
+"I do not see how you will manage that, Frank."
+
+"You forget I am a lawyer."
+
+Yet for all the assurance manifested by this speech, it was some time
+before Frank could see his way clearly to what he desired. A dozen plans
+were made and dismissed as futile before he finally determined to seek
+the assistance of a fellow-lawyer whose name he had seen in the window
+of the one brick building in the principal street. "Through him,"
+thought he, "I may light upon some business which will enable me to
+request with propriety an interview with Miss Cavanagh." Yet his heart
+failed him as he went up the steps of Mr. Hamilton's office, and if that
+gentleman, upon presenting himself, had been a young man, Frank would
+certainly have made some excuse for his intrusion, and retired. But he
+was old and white-haired and benignant, and so Frank was lured into
+introducing himself as a young lawyer from New York, engaged in finding
+the whereabouts of one Harriet Smith, a former resident of Marston.
+
+Mr. Hamilton, who could not fail to be impressed by Etheridge's sterling
+appearance, met him with cordiality.
+
+"I have heard of you," said he, "but I fear your errand here is bound
+to be fruitless. No Harriet Smith, so far as I know, ever came to reside
+in this town. And I was born and bred in this street. Have you actual
+knowledge that one by that name ever lived here, and can you give me the
+date?"
+
+The answers Frank made were profuse but hurried; he had not expected to
+gain news of Harriet Smith; he had only used the topic as a means of
+introducing conversation. But when he came to the point in which he was
+more nearly interested, he found his courage fail him. He could not
+speak the name of Miss Cavanagh, even in the most casual fashion, and so
+the interview ended without any further result than the making on his
+part of a pleasant acquaintance. Subdued by his failure, Frank quitted
+the office, and walked slowly down the street. If he had not boasted of
+his intentions to Edgar, he would have left the town without further
+effort; but now his pride was involved, and he made that an excuse to
+his love. Should he proceed boldly to her house, use the knocker, and
+ask to see Miss Cavanagh? Yes, he might do that, but afterwards? With
+what words should he greet her, or win that confidence which the
+situation so peculiarly demanded? He was not an acknowledged friend, or
+the friend of an acknowledged friend, unless Edgar---- But no, Edgar was
+not their friend; it would be folly to speak his name to them. What
+then? Must he give up his hopes till time had paved the way to their
+realization? He feared it must be so, yet he recoiled from the delay. In
+this mood he re-entered Edgar's office.
+
+A woman in hat and cloak met him.
+
+"Are you the stranger lawyer that has come to town?" she asked.
+
+He bowed, wondering if he was about to hear news of Harriet Smith.
+
+"Then this note is for you," she declared, handing him a little
+three-cornered billet.
+
+His heart gave a great leap, and he turned towards the window as he
+opened the note. Who could be writing letters to him of such dainty
+appearance as this? Not she, of course, and yet---- He tore open the
+sheet, and read these words:
+
+    "If not asking too great a favor, may I request that you will
+    call at my house, in your capacity of lawyer.
+
+    "As I do not leave my own home, you will pardon this informal
+    method of requesting your services. The lawyer here cannot do my
+    work.
+
+        "Yours respectfully,
+            "HERMIONE CAVANAGH."
+
+He was too much struck with amazement and delight to answer the
+messenger at once. When he did so, his voice was very business-like.
+
+"Will Miss Cavanagh be at liberty this morning?" he asked. "I shall be
+obliged to return to the city after dinner."
+
+"She told me to say that any time would be convenient to her," was the
+answer.
+
+"Then say to her that I will be at her door in half an hour."
+
+The woman nodded, and turned.
+
+"She lives on the road to the depot, where the two rows of poplars are,"
+she suddenly declared, as she paused at the door.
+
+"I know," he began, and blushed, for the woman had given him a quick
+glance of surprise. "I noticed the poplars," he explained.
+
+She smiled as she passed out, and that made him crimson still more.
+
+"Do I wear my heart on my sleeve?" he murmured to himself, in secret
+vexation. "If so, I must wrap it about with a decent cloak of reserve
+before I go into the presence of one who has such power to move it." And
+he was glad Edgar was not at home to mark his excitement.
+
+The half hour wore away, and he stood on the rose-embowered porch. Would
+she come to the door herself, or would it be the sad-eyed sister he
+should see first? It mattered little. It was Hermione who had sent for
+him, and it was with Hermione he should talk. Was it his heart that was
+beating so loudly? He had scarcely answered the question, when the door
+opened, and the woman who had served as a messenger from Miss Cavanagh
+stood before him.
+
+"Ah!" said she, "come in." And in another moment he was in the enchanted
+house.
+
+A door stood open at his left, and into the room thus disclosed he was
+ceremoniously ushered.
+
+"Miss Cavanagh will be down in a moment," said the woman, as she slowly
+walked away, with more than one lingering backward look.
+
+He did not note this look, for his eyes were on the quaint old furniture
+and shadowy recesses of the staid best room, in which he stood an uneasy
+guest. For somehow he had imagined he would see the woman of his dreams
+in a place of cheer and sunshine; at a window, perhaps, where the roses
+looked in, or at least in a spot enlivened by some evidences of womanly
+handiwork and taste. But here all was stiff as at a funeral. The high
+black mantel-shelf was without clock or vase, and the only attempt at
+ornament to be seen within the four grim walls was an uncouth wreath,
+made of shells, on a background of dismal black, which hung between the
+windows. It was enough to rob any moment of its romance. And yet, if she
+should look fair here, what might he not expect of her beauty in more
+harmonious surroundings.
+
+As he was adjusting his ideas to this thought, there came the sound of
+a step on the stair, and the next moment Hermione Cavanagh entered his
+presence.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+A SEARCH AND ITS RESULTS.
+
+
+Hermione Cavanagh, without the scar, would have been one of the
+handsomest of women. She was of the grand type, with height and a
+nobility of presence to which the extreme loveliness of her perfect
+features lent a harmonizing grace. Of a dazzling complexion, the hair
+which lay above her straight fine brows shone ebon-like in its lustre,
+while her eyes, strangely and softly blue, filled the gazer at first
+with surprise and then with delight as the varying emotions of her quick
+mind deepened them into a more perfect consonance with her hair, or
+softened them into something like the dewy freshness of heaven-born
+flowers. Her mouth was mobile, but the passions it expressed were not of
+the gentlest, whatever might be the language of her eyes, and so it was
+that her face was in a way a contradiction of itself, which made it a
+fascinating study to one who cared to watch it, or possessed sufficient
+understanding to read its subtle language. She was oddly dressed in a
+black, straight garment, eminently in keeping with the room; but there
+was taste displayed in the arrangement of her hair, and nothing could
+make her face anything but a revelation of beauty, unless it was the
+scar, and that Frank Etheridge did not see.
+
+"Are you--" she began and paused, looking at him with such surprise that
+he felt his cheeks flush--"the lawyer who was in town a few days ago on
+some pressing inquiry?"
+
+"I am," returned Frank, making her the low bow her embarrassment seemed
+to demand.
+
+"Then you must excuse me," said she; "I thought you were an elderly man,
+like our own Mr. Hamilton. I should not have sent for you if----"
+
+"If you had known I had no more experience," he suggested, with a smile,
+seeing her pause in some embarrassment.
+
+She bowed; yet he knew that was not the way she would have ended the
+sentence if she had spoken her thought.
+
+"Then I am to understand," said he, with a gentleness born of his great
+wish to be of service to her, "that you would prefer that I should send
+you an older adviser. I can do it, Miss Cavanagh."
+
+"Thank you," she said, and stood hesitating, the slight flush on her
+cheek showing that she was engaged in some secret struggle. "I will tell
+you my difficulty," she pursued at last, raising her eyes with a frank
+look to his face. "Will you be seated?"
+
+Charmed with the graciousness of her manner when once relieved from
+embarrassment, he waited for her to sit and then took a chair himself.
+
+"It is a wearisome affair," she declared, "but one which a New York
+lawyer can solve without much trouble." And with the clearness of a
+highly cultivated mind, she gave him the facts of a case in which she
+and her sister had become involved through the negligence of her man of
+business.
+
+"Can you help me?" she asked.
+
+"Very easily," he replied. "You have but to go to New York and swear to
+these facts before a magistrate, and the matter will be settled without
+difficulty."
+
+"But I cannot go to New York."
+
+"No? Not on a matter of this importance?"
+
+"On no matter. I do not travel, Mr. Etheridge."
+
+The pride and finality with which this was uttered, gave him his first
+glimpse of the hard streak which there was undoubtedly in her character.
+Though he longed to press the question he judged that he had better not,
+so suggested carelessly:
+
+"Your sister, then?"
+
+But she met this suggestion, as he had expected her to, with equal
+calmness and pride.
+
+"My sister does not travel either."
+
+He looked the astonishment he did not feel and remarked gravely:
+
+"I fear, then, that the matter cannot be so easily adjusted." And he
+began to point out the difficulties in the way, to all of which she
+listened with a slightly absent air, as if the affair was in reality of
+no great importance to her.
+
+Suddenly she waved her hand with a quick gesture.
+
+"You can do as you please," said she. "If you can save us from loss, do
+so; if not, let the matter go; I shall not allow it to worry me
+further." Then she looked up at him with a total change of expression,
+and for the first time the hint of a smile softened the almost severe
+outline of her mouth. "You are searching, I hear, for a woman named
+Harriet Smith; have you found her, sir?"
+
+Delighted at this evidence on her part of a wish to indulge in general
+conversation, he answered with alacrity:
+
+"Not yet. She was not, as it seems, a well-known inhabitant of this town
+as I had been led to believe. I even begin to fear she never has lived
+here at all. The name is a new one to you, I presume."
+
+"Smith. Can the name of Smith ever be said to be new?" she laughed with
+something like an appearance of gayety.
+
+"But Harriet," he explained, "Harriet Smith, once Harriet Huckins."
+
+"I never knew any Harriet Smith," she averred. "Would it have obliged
+you very much if I had?"
+
+He smiled, somewhat baffled by her manner, but charmed by her voice,
+which was very rich and sweet in its tones.
+
+"It certainly would have saved me much labor and suspense," he replied.
+
+"Then the matter is serious?"
+
+"Is not all law-business serious?"
+
+"You have just proved it so," she remarked.
+
+He could not understand her; she seemed to wish to talk and yet
+hesitated with the words on her lips. After waiting for her to speak
+further and waiting in vain, he changed the subject back to the one
+which had at first occupied them.
+
+"I shall be in Marston again," said he; "if you will allow me I will
+then call again and tell you exactly what I can do for your interest."
+
+"If you will be so kind," she replied, and seemed to breathe easier.
+
+"I have one intimate friend in town," pursued Frank, as he rose to take
+his departure, "Dr. Sellick. If you know him----"
+
+Why did he pause? She had not moved and yet something, he could not say
+what, had made an entire change in her attitude and expression. It was
+as if a chill had passed over her, stiffening her limbs and paling her
+face, yet her eyes did not fall from his face, and she tried to speak as
+usual.
+
+"Dr. Sellick?"
+
+"Yes, he has returned to Marston after a year of absence. Have not the
+gossips told you that?"
+
+"No; that is, I have seen no one--I used to know Dr. Sellick," she
+added with a vain attempt to be natural. "Is that my sister I hear?" And
+she turned sharply about.
+
+Up to this moment she had uniformly kept the uninjured side of her face
+towards him, and he had noticed the fact and been profoundly touched by
+her seeming sensitiveness. But he was more touched now by the emotion
+which made her forget herself, for it argued badly for his hopes, and
+assured him that for all Sellick's assumed indifference, there had been
+some link of feeling between these two which he found himself illy
+prepared to accept.
+
+"May I not have the honor," he requested, "of an introduction to your
+sister?"
+
+"She is not coming; I was mistaken," was her sole reply, and her
+beautiful face turned once more towards him, with a deepening of its
+usual tragic expression which lent to it a severity which would have
+appalled most men. But he loved every change in that enigmatical
+countenance, there was so much character in its grave lines. So with the
+consideration that was a part of his nature he made a great effort to
+subdue his jealous curiosity, and saying, "Then we will reserve that
+pleasure till another time," bowed like a man at his ease, and passed
+quickly out of the door.
+
+Yet his heart was heavy and his thoughts in wildest turmoil; for he
+loved this woman and she had paled and showed the intensest emotion at
+the mention of a man whom he had heard decry her. He might have felt
+worse could he have seen the look of misery which settled upon her face
+as the door closed upon him, or noted how long she sat with fixed eyes
+and paling lips in that dreary old parlor where he had left her. As it
+was, he felt sufficiently disturbed and for a long time hesitated
+whether or not he should confront Edgar with an accusation of knowing
+Miss Cavanagh better than he acknowledged. But Sellick's reserve was one
+that imposed silence, and Frank dared not break through it lest he
+should lose the one opportunity he now had of visiting Marston freely.
+So he composed himself with the thought that he had at least gained a
+footing in the house, and if the rest did not follow he had only himself
+to blame. And in this spirit he again left Marston.
+
+He found plenty of work awaiting him in his office. Foremost in
+interest was an invitation to be present at the search which was to be
+instituted that afternoon in the premises of the Widow Wakeham. The will
+of which he had been made Executor, having been admitted to probate, it
+had been considered advisable to have an inventory made of the personal
+effects of the deceased, and this day had been set apart for the
+purpose. To meet this appointment he hurried all the rest, and at the
+hour set, he found himself before the broken gate and gardens of the
+ruinous old house in Flatbush. There was a crowd already gathered there,
+and as he made his appearance he was greeted by a loud murmur which
+amply proved that his errand was known. At the door he was met by the
+two Appraisers appointed by the Surrogate, and within he found one or
+two workmen hob-nobbing with a detective from police headquarters.
+
+The house looked barer and more desolate than ever. It was a sunshiny
+day, and the windows having been opened, the pitiless rays streamed in
+showing all the defects which time and misuse had created in the once
+stately mansion. Not a crack in plastering or woodwork but stood forth
+in bold relief that day, nor were the gaping holes in the flooring of
+hall and parlor able to hide themselves any longer under the strips of
+carpet with which Huckins had endeavored to conceal them.
+
+"Shall we begin with the lower floor?" asked one of the workmen, poising
+the axe he had brought with him.
+
+The Appraisers bowed, and the work of demolition began. As the first
+sound of splitting boards rang through the empty house, a quick cry as
+of a creature in pain burst from the staircase without, and they saw,
+crouching there with trembling hands held out in protest, the meagre
+form of Huckins.
+
+"Oh, don't! don't!" he began; but before they could answer, he had
+bounded down the stairs to where they stood and was looking with eager,
+staring eyes into the hole which the workmen had made.
+
+"Have you found anything?" he asked. "It is to be all mine, you know,
+and the more you find the richer I'll be. Let's see--let's see, she may
+have hidden something here, there is no knowing." And falling on his
+knees he thrust his long arm into the aperture before him, just as Mr.
+Dickey had seen him do in a similar case on the night of the old woman's
+death.
+
+But as his interference was not desired, he was drawn quietly back, and
+was simply allowed to stand there and watch while the others proceeded
+in their work. This he did with an excitement which showed itself in
+alternate starts and sudden breathless gasps, which, taken with the
+sickly smiles with which he endeavored to hide the frowns caused by his
+natural indignation, made a great impression upon Frank, who had come to
+regard him as a unique specimen in nature, something between a hyena and
+a fox.
+
+As the men held up a little packet which had at last come to light very
+near the fireplace, he gave a shriek and stretched out two clutching
+hands.
+
+"Let me have it!" he cried. "I know what that is; it disappeared from my
+sister's desk five years ago, and I could never get her to tell where
+she had put it. Let me have it, and I will open it here before you all.
+Indeed I will, sirs--though it is all mine, as I have said before."
+
+But Etheridge, quietly taking it, placed it in his pocket, and Huckins
+sank back with a groan.
+
+The next place to be examined was the room upstairs. Here the poor
+woman had spent most of her time till she was seized with her last
+sickness, and here the box had been found by Huckins, and here they
+expected to find the rest of her treasures. But beyond a small casket of
+almost worthless jewelry, nothing new was discovered, and they proceeded
+at Frank's suggestion to inspect the room where she had died, and where
+the clock still stood towards which she had lifted her dying hand, while
+saying, "There! there!"
+
+As they approached this place, Huckins was seen to tremble. Catching
+Frank by the arm, he whispered:
+
+"Can they be trusted? Are they honest men? She had greenbacks, piles of
+greenbacks; I have caught her counting them. If they find them, will
+they save them all for me?"
+
+"They will save them all for the heir," retorted Frank, severely. "Why
+do you say they are for you, when you know you will only get them in
+default of other heirs being found."
+
+"Why? why? Because I feel that they are mine. Heirs or no heirs, they
+will come into my grasp yet, and you of the law cannot help it. Do I
+look like a man who will die poor? No, no; but I don't want to be
+cheated. I don't want these men to rob me of anything which will
+rightfully be mine some day."
+
+"You need not fret about that," said Frank. "No one will rob _you_," and
+he drew disdainfully aside.
+
+The Appraisers had now surveyed the room awful with hideous memories to
+the young lawyer. Pointing to the bed, they said:
+
+"Search that," and the search was made.
+
+A bundle of letters came to light and were handed over to Frank.
+
+"Why did she hide those away?" screamed Huckins. "They ain't money."
+
+Nobody answered him.
+
+The lintels of the windows and doors were now looked into, and the
+fireplace dismantled and searched. But nothing was found in these
+places, nor in the staring cupboards or beneath the loosened boards.
+Finally they came to the clock.
+
+"Oh, let me," cried Huckins, "let me be the first to stop that clock. It
+has been running ever since I was a little boy. My mother used to wind
+it with her own hands. I cannot bear a stranger's hand to touch it.
+My--my sister would not have liked it."
+
+But they disregarded even this appeal; and he was forced to stand in the
+background and see the old piece taken down and laid at length upon the
+floor with its face to the boards. There was nothing in its interior but
+the works which belonged there, but the frame at its back seemed
+unusually heavy, and Etheridge consequently had this taken off, when, to
+the astonishment of all and to the frantic delight of Huckins, there
+appeared at the very first view, snugly laid between the true and false
+backing, layers of bills and piles of sealed and unsealed papers.
+
+"A fortune! A fortune!" cried this would-be possessor of his sister's
+hoarded savings. "I knew we should find it at last. I knew it wasn't all
+in that box. She tried to make me think it was, and made a great secret
+of where she had put it, and how it was all to be for me if I only let
+it alone. But the fortune was here in this old clock I have stared at a
+thousand times. Here, here, and I never knew it, never suspected it
+till----"
+
+He felt the lawyer's eyes fall on him, and became suddenly silent.
+
+"Let's count it!" he greedily cried, at last.
+
+But the Appraisers, maintaining their composure, motioned the almost
+frenzied man aside, and summoning Frank to assist them, made out a list
+of the papers, which were most of them valuable, and then proceeded to
+count the loose bills. The result was to make Huckins' eyes gleam with
+joy and satisfaction. As the last number left their lips, he threw up
+his arms in unrestrained glee, and cried:
+
+"I will make you all rich some day. Yes, sirs; I have not the greed of
+my poor dead sister; I intend to spend what is mine, and have a good
+time while I live. I don't intend any one to dance over my grave when I
+am dead."
+
+His attitude was one so suggestive of this very same expression of
+delight, that more than one who saw him and heard these words shuddered
+as they turned from him; but he did not care for cold shoulders now, or
+for any expression of disdain or disapproval. He had seen the fortune of
+his sister with his own eyes, and for that moment it was enough.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THE TWO SISTERS.
+
+
+When Frank returned again to Marston he did not hesitate to tell Edgar
+that "he had business relations with Miss Cavanagh." This astonished the
+doctor, who was of a more conservative nature, but he did not mingle his
+astonishment with any appearance of chagrin, so Frank took heart, and
+began to dream that he had been mistaken in the tokens which Miss
+Cavanagh had given of being moved by the news of Dr. Sellick's return.
+
+He went to see her as soon as he had supped with his friend, and this
+time he was introduced into a less formal apartment. Both sisters were
+present, and in the moment which followed the younger's introduction, he
+had leisure to note the similarity and dissimilarity between them, which
+made them such a delightful study to an interested observer.
+
+Emma was the name of the younger, and as she had the more ordinary and
+less poetic name, so at first view she had the more ordinary and less
+poetic nature. Yet as the eye lingered on her touching face, with its
+unmistakable lines of sadness, the slow assurance gained upon the mind
+that beneath her quiet smile and gentle self-contained air lay the same
+force of will which spoke at once in the firm lip and steady gaze of the
+older woman. But her will was beneficent, and her character noble, while
+Hermione bore the evidences of being under a cloud, whose shadow was
+darkened by something less easily understood than sorrow.
+
+Yet Hermione, and not Emma, moved his heart, and if he acknowledged to
+himself that a two-edged sword lay beneath the forced composure of her
+manner, it was with the same feelings with which he acknowledged the
+scar which offended all eyes but his own. They were both dressed in
+white, and Emma wore a cluster of snowy pinks in her belt, but Hermione
+was without ornament. The beauty of the latter was but faintly shadowed
+in her younger sister's face, yet had Emma been alone she would have
+stood in his mind as a sweet picture of melancholy young womanhood.
+
+Hermione was evidently glad to see him. Fresh and dainty as this, their
+living room, looked, with its delicate white curtains blowing in the
+twilight breeze, there were hours, no doubt, when it seemed no more than
+a prison-house to these two passionate young hearts. To-night cheer and
+an emanation from the large outside world had come into it with their
+young visitor, and both girls seemed sensible of it, and brightened
+visibly. The talk was, of course, upon business, and while he noticed
+that Hermione led the conversation, he also noticed that when Emma did
+speak it was with the same clear grasp of the subject which he had
+admired in the other. "Two keen minds," thought he, and became more
+deeply interested than ever in the mystery of their retirement, and
+evident renouncement of the world.
+
+He had to tell them he could do nothing for them unless one or both of
+them would consent to go to New York.
+
+"The magistrate whom I saw," said he, "asked if you were well, and when
+I was forced to say yes, answered that for no other reason than illness
+could he excuse you from appearing before him. So if you will not comply
+with his rules, I fear your cause must go, and with it whatever it
+involves."
+
+Emma, whose face showed the greater anxiety of the two, started as he
+said this, and glanced eagerly at her sister. But Hermione did not
+answer that glance. She was, perhaps, too much engaged in maintaining
+her own self-control, for the lines deepened in her face, and she all at
+once assumed that air of wild yet subdued suffering which had made him
+feel at the time of his first stolen glimpse of her face that it was the
+most tragic countenance he had ever beheld.
+
+"We cannot go," came forth sharply from her lips, after a short but
+painful pause. "The case must be dropped." And she rose, as if she could
+not bear the weight of her thoughts, and moved slowly to the window,
+where she leaned for a moment, her face turned blankly on the street
+without.
+
+Emma sighed, and her eyes fell with a strange pathos upon Frank's almost
+equally troubled face.
+
+"There is no use," her gentle looks seemed to say. "Do not urge her; it
+will be only one grief the more."
+
+But Frank was not one to heed such an appeal in sight of the noble
+drooping figure and set white face of the woman upon whose happiness he
+had fixed his own, though neither of these two knew it as yet. So, with
+a deprecating look at Emma, he crossed to Hermione's side, and with a
+slow, respectful voice exclaimed:
+
+"Do not make me feel as if I had been the cause of loss to you. An older
+man might have done better. Let me send an older man to you, then, or
+pray that you reconsider a decision which will always fill me with
+regret."
+
+But Hermione, turning slowly, fixed him with her eyes, whose meaning he
+was farther than ever from understanding, and saying gently, "The matter
+is at end, Mr. Etheridge," came back to the seat she had vacated, and
+motioned to him to return to the one he had just left. "Let as talk of
+other things," said she, and forced her lips to smile.
+
+He obeyed, and at once opened a general conversation. Both sisters
+joined in it, and such was his influence and the impulse of their own
+youth that gradually the depth of shadow departed from their faces and a
+certain grave sort of pleasure appeared there, giving him many a thrill
+of joy, and making the otherwise dismal hour one to be happily
+remembered by him through many a weary day and night.
+
+When he came to leave he asked Emma, who strangely enough had now become
+the most talkative of the two, whether there was not something he could
+do for her in New York or elsewhere before he came again.
+
+She shook her head, but in another moment, Hermione having stepped
+aside, she whispered:
+
+"Make my sister smile again as she did a minute ago, and you will give
+me all the happiness I seek."
+
+The words made him joyous, and the look he bestowed upon her in return
+had a promise in it which made the young girl's dreams lighter that
+night, for all the new cause of anxiety which had come into her secluded
+life.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+DORIS.
+
+
+Frank Etheridge walked musingly towards town. When half-way there he
+heard his name pronounced behind him in tremulous accents, and turning,
+saw hastening in his wake the woman who had brought him the message
+which first took him to Miss Cavanagh's house. She was panting with the
+haste she had made, and evidently wished to speak to him. He of course
+stopped, being only too anxious to know what the good woman had to say.
+She flushed as she came near to him.
+
+"Oh, sir," she cried with an odd mixture of eagerness and restraint, "I
+have been wanting to talk to you, and if you would be so good as to let
+me say what is on my mind, it would be a great satisfaction to me,
+please, and make me feel a deal easier."
+
+"I should be very glad to hear whatever you may have to tell me," was
+his natural response. "Are you in trouble? Can I help you?"
+
+"Oh, it is not that," she answered, looking about to see if any curious
+persons were peering at them through the neighboring window-blinds,
+"though I have my troubles, of course, as who hasn't in this hard, rough
+world; it is not of myself I want to speak, but of the young ladies. You
+take an interest in them, sir?"
+
+It was naturally put, yet it made his cheek glow.
+
+"I am their lawyer," he murmured.
+
+"I thought so," she went on as if she had not seen the evidences of
+emotion on his part, or if she had seen them had failed to interpret
+them. "Mr. Hamilton is a very good man but he is not of much use, sir;
+but you look different, as if you could influence them, and make them do
+as other people do, and enjoy the world, and go out to church, and see
+the neighbors, and be natural in short."
+
+"And they do not?"
+
+"Never, sir; haven't you heard? They never either of them set foot
+beyond the garden gate. Miss Emma enjoys the flower-beds and spends most
+of her time working at them or walking up and down between the poplars,
+but Miss Hermione keeps to the house and grows white and thin, studying
+and reading, and making herself wise--for what? No one comes to see
+them--that is, not often, sir, and when they do, they are stiff and
+formal, as if the air of the house was chilly with something nobody
+understood. It isn't right, and it's going against God's laws, for they
+are both well and able to go about the world as others do. Why, then,
+don't they do it? That is what I want to know."
+
+"And that is what everybody wants to know," returned Frank, smiling;
+"but as long as the young ladies do not care to explain themselves I do
+not see how you or any one else can criticise their conduct. They must
+have good reasons for their seclusion or they would never deny
+themselves all the pleasures natural to youth."
+
+"Reasons? What reasons can they have for actions so extraordinary? I
+don't know of any reason on God's earth which would keep me tied to the
+house, if my feet were able to travel and my eyes to see."
+
+"Do you live with them?"
+
+"Yes; or how could they get the necessaries of life? I do their
+marketing, go for the doctor when they are sick, pay their bills, and
+buy their dresses. That's why their frocks are no prettier," she
+explained.
+
+Frank felt his wonder increase.
+
+"It is certainly a great mystery," he acknowledged. "I have heard of
+elderly women showing their eccentricity in this way, but young girls!"
+
+"And such beautiful girls! Do you not think them beautiful?" she asked.
+
+He started and looked at the woman more closely. There was a tone in her
+voice when she put this question that for the first time made him think
+that she was less simple than her manner would seem to indicate.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked her abruptly.
+
+"Doris, sir."
+
+"And what is it you want of me?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I thought I told you; to talk to the young ladies and show
+them how wicked it is to slight the good gifts which the Lord has
+bestowed upon them. They may listen to you, sir; seeing that you are
+from out of town and have the ways of the big city about you."
+
+She was very humble now and had dropped her eyes in some confusion at
+his altered manner, so that she did not see how keenly his glance rested
+upon her nervous nostril, weak mouth, and obstinate chin. But she
+evidently felt his sudden distrust, for her hands clutched each other in
+embarrassment and she no longer spoke with the assurance with which she
+had commenced the conversation.
+
+"I like the young ladies," she now explained, "and it is for their own
+good I want them to do differently."
+
+"Have they never been talked to on the subject? Have not their friends
+or relatives tried to make them break their seclusion?"
+
+"Oh, sir, the times the minister has been to that house! And the doctor
+telling them they would lose their health if they kept on in the way
+they were going! But it was all waste breath; they only said they had
+their reasons, and left people to draw what conclusions they would."
+
+Frank Etheridge, who had a gentleman's instincts, and yet who was too
+much of a lawyer not to avail himself of the garrulity of another on a
+question he had so much at heart, stopped, and weighed the matter a
+moment with himself before he put the one or two questions which her
+revelations suggested. Should he dismiss the woman with a rebuke for her
+forwardness, or should he humor her love for talk and learn the few
+things further which he was in reality burning to hear. His love and
+interest naturally gained the victory over his pride, and he allowed
+himself to ask:
+
+"How long have they kept themselves shut up? Is it a year, do you
+think?"
+
+"Oh, a full year, sir; six months at least before their father died. We
+did not notice it at first, because they never said anything about it,
+but at last it became very evident, and then we calculated and found
+they had not stepped out of the house since the day of the great ball at
+Hartford."
+
+"The great ball!"
+
+"Yes, sir, a grand party that every one went to. But they did not go,
+though they had talked about it, and Miss Hermione had her dress ready.
+And they never went out again, not even to their father's funeral. Think
+of that, sir, not even to their father's funeral."
+
+"It is very strange," said he, determined at whatever cost to ask Edgar
+about that ball, and if he went to it.
+
+"And that is not all," continued his now thoroughly reassured
+companion. "They were never the same girls again after that time. Before
+then Miss Hermione was the admiration and pride of the whole town,
+notwithstanding that dreadful scar, while Miss Emma was the life of the
+house and of every gathering she went into. But afterwards--well, you
+can see for yourself what they are now; and it was just so before their
+father died."
+
+Frank longed to ask some questions about this father, but reason bade
+him desist. He was already humiliating himself enough in thus discussing
+the daughters with the servant who waited upon them; others must tell
+him about the old gentleman.
+
+"The house is just like a haunted house," Doris now remarked. Then as
+she saw him cast her a quick look of renewed interest, she glanced
+nervously down the street and asked eagerly: "Would you mind turning off
+into this lane, sir, where there are not so many persons to pry and peer
+at us? It is still early enough for people to see, and as everybody
+knows me and everybody by this time must know you, they may wonder to
+see us talking together, and I do so long to ease my whole conscience
+now I am about it."
+
+For reply, he took the road she had pointed out. When they were
+comfortably out of sight from the main street, he stopped again and
+said:
+
+"What do you mean by haunted?"
+
+"Oh, sir," she began, "not by ghosts; I don't believe in any such
+nonsense as ghosts; but by memories sir, memories of something which has
+happened within those four walls and which are now locked up in the
+hearts of those two girls, making them live like spectres. I am not a
+fanciful person myself, nor given to imaginings, but that house,
+especially on nights when the wind blows, seems to be full of something
+not in nature; and though I do not hear anything or see anything, I feel
+strange terrors and almost expect the walls to speak or the floors to
+give up their secrets, but they never do; and that is why I quake in my
+bed and lie awake so many nights."
+
+"Yet you are not fanciful, nor given to imaginings," smiled Frank.
+
+"No, for there is ground for my secret fears. I see it in the girls'
+pale looks, I hear it in the girls' restless tread as they pace hour
+after hour through those lonesome rooms."
+
+"They walk for exercise; they do not use the streets, so they make a
+promenade of their own floors."
+
+"Do people walk for exercise at night?"
+
+"At _night_?"
+
+"Late at night; at one, two, sometimes three, in the morning? Oh, sir,
+it is uncanny, I tell you."
+
+"They are not well; lack of change affects their nerves and they cannot
+sleep, so they walk."
+
+"Very likely, _but they do not walk together_. Sometimes it's one, and
+sometimes it's the other. I know their different steps, and I never hear
+them both at the same time."
+
+Frank felt a cold shiver thrill his blood.
+
+"I have been in the house," she resumed, after a minute's pause, "for
+five years; ever since Mrs. Cavanagh died, and I cannot tell you what
+its secret is. But it has one, I am certain, and I often go about the
+halls and into the different rooms and ask low to myself, 'Was it here
+that it happened, or was it there?' There is a little staircase on the
+second floor which takes a quick turn towards a big empty room where
+nobody ever sleeps, and though I have no reason for shuddering at that
+place, I always do, perhaps because it is in that big room the young
+ladies walk so much. Can you understand my feeling this way, and I no
+more than a servant to them?"
+
+A month ago he would have uttered a loud disclaimer, but he had changed
+much in some regards, so he answered: "Yes, if you really care for
+them."
+
+The look she gave him proved that she did, beyond all doubt.
+
+"If I did not care for them do you think I would stay in such a gloomy
+house? I love them both better than anything else in the whole world,
+and I would not leave them, not for all the money any one could offer
+me."
+
+She was evidently sincere, and Frank felt a vague relief.
+
+"I am glad," said he, "that they have so good a friend in their own
+house; as for your fears you will have to bear them, for I doubt if the
+young ladies will ever take any one into their confidence."
+
+"Not--not their lawyer?"
+
+"No," said he, "not even their lawyer."
+
+She looked disappointed and suddenly very ill at ease.
+
+"I thought you might be masterful," she murmured, "and find out.
+Perhaps you will some day, and then everything will be different. Miss
+Emma is the most amiable," said she, "and would not long remain a
+prisoner if Miss Hermione would consent to leave the house."
+
+"Miss Emma is the younger?"
+
+"Yes, yes, in everything."
+
+"And the sadder!"
+
+"I am not so sure about that, but she shows her feelings plainer,
+perhaps because her spirits used to be so high."
+
+Frank now felt they had talked long enough, interesting as was the topic
+on which they were engaged. So turning his face towards the town, he
+remarked:
+
+"I am going back to New York to-night, but I shall probably be in
+Marston again soon. Watch well over the young ladies, but do not think
+of repeating this interview unless something of great importance should
+occur. It would not please them if they knew you were in the habit of
+talking them over to me, and it is your duty to act just as they would
+wish you to."
+
+"I know it, sir, but when it is for their good----"
+
+"I understand; but let us not repeat it, Doris." And he bade her a kind
+but significant good-by.
+
+It was now quite dusk, and as he walked towards Dr. Sellick's office,
+he remembered with some satisfaction that Edgar was usually at home
+during the early evening. He wanted to talk to him about Hermione's
+father, and his mood was too impatient for a long delay. He found him as
+he expected, seated before his desk, and with his wonted precipitancy
+dashed at once into his subject.
+
+"Edgar, you told me once that you were acquainted with Miss Cavanagh's
+father; that you were accustomed to visit him. What kind of a man was
+he? A hard one?"
+
+Edgar, taken somewhat by surprise, faltered for a moment, but only for a
+moment.
+
+"I never have attempted to criticise him," said he; "but let me see; he
+was a straightforward man and a persistent one, never let go when he
+once entered upon a thing. He could be severe, but I should never have
+called him hard. He was like--well he was like Raynor, that professor of
+ours, who understood everything about beetles and butterflies and such
+small fry, and knew very little about men or their ways and tastes when
+they did not coincide with his own. Mr. Cavanagh's hobby was not in the
+line of natural history, but of chemistry, and that is why I visited him
+so much; we used to experiment together."
+
+"Was it his pastime or his profession? The house does not look as if it
+had been the abode of a rich man."
+
+"He was not rich, but he was well enough off to indulge his whims. I
+think he inherited the few thousands, upon the income of which he
+supported himself and family."
+
+"And he could be severe?"
+
+"Very, if he were interrupted in his work; at other times he was simply
+amiable and absent-minded. He only seemed to live when he had a retort
+before him."
+
+"Of what did he die?"
+
+"Apoplexy, I think; I was not here, so do not know the particulars."
+
+"Was he--" Frank turned and looked squarely at his friend, as he always
+did when he had a venturesome question to put--"was he fond of his
+daughters?"
+
+Edgar had probably been expecting some such turn in the conversation as
+this, yet he frowned and answered quite hastily, though with evident
+conscientiousness:
+
+"I could not make out; I do not know as I ever tried to; the matter did
+not interest me."
+
+But Frank was bound to have a definite reply.
+
+"I think you will be able to tell me if you will only give your mind to
+it for a few moments. A father cannot help but show some gleam of
+affection for two motherless girls."
+
+"Oh, he was proud of them," Edgar hurriedly asserted, "and liked to have
+them ready to hand him his coffee when his experiments were over; but
+fond of them in the way you mean, I think not. I imagine they often
+missed their mother."
+
+"Did you know _her_?"
+
+"No, only as a child. She died when I was a youngster."
+
+"You do not help me much," sighed Frank.
+
+"Help you?"
+
+"To solve the mystery of those girls' lives."
+
+"Oh!" was Edgar's short exclamation.
+
+"I thought I might get at it by learning about the father, but nothing
+seems to give me any clue."
+
+Edgar rose with a restless air.
+
+"Why not do as I do--let the matter alone?"
+
+"Because," cried Frank, hotly, "my affections are engaged. I love
+Hermione Cavanagh, and I cannot leave a matter alone that concerns her
+so nearly."
+
+"I see," quoth Edgar, and became very silent.
+
+When Frank returned to New York it was with the resolution to win the
+heart of Hermione and then ask her to tell him her secret. He was so
+sure that whatever it was, it was not one which would stand in the way
+of his happiness.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+LOVE.
+
+
+Frank's next business was to read the packet of letters which had been
+found in old Mrs. Wakeham's bed. The box abstracted by Huckins had been
+examined during his absence and found to contain securities, which,
+together with the ready money and papers taken from the clock, amounted
+to so many thousands that it had become quite a serious matter to find
+the heir. Huckins still clung to the house, but he gave no trouble. He
+was satisfied, he said, to abide by the second will, being convinced
+that if he were patient he would yet inherit through it. His sister
+Harriet was without doubt dead, and he professed great willingness to
+give any aid possible in verifying the fact. But as he could adduce no
+proofs nor suggest any clue to the discovery of this sister's
+whereabouts if living, or of her grave if dead, his offers were
+disregarded, and he was allowed to hermitize in the old house
+undisturbed.
+
+Meantime, false clues came in and false claims were raised by various
+needy adventurers. To follow up these clues and sift these claims took
+much of Frank Etheridge's time, and when he was not engaged upon this
+active work he employed himself in reading those letters to which I have
+already alluded.
+
+They were of old date and were from various sources. But they conveyed
+little that was likely to be of assistance to him. Of the twenty he
+finally read, only one was signed Harriet, and while that was very
+interesting to him, as giving some glimpses into the early history of
+this woman, it did not give him any facts upon which either he or the
+police could work. I will transcribe the letter here:
+
+    "MY DEAR CYNTHIA:
+
+    "You are the only one of the family to whom I dare write. I
+    have displeased father too much to ever hope for his
+    forgiveness, while mother will never go against his wishes, even
+    if the grief of it should make me die. I am very unhappy, I can
+    tell you that, more unhappy than even they could wish, but they
+    must never know it, never. I have still enough pride to wish to
+    keep my misery to myself, and it would be just the one thing
+    that would make my burden unbearable, to have them know I
+    regretted the marriage on account of which I have been turned
+    away from their hearts and home forever. But I do regret it,
+    Cynthia, from the bottom of my heart. He is not kind, and he is
+    not a gentleman, and I made a terrible mistake, as you can see.
+    But I do not think I was to blame. He seemed so devoted, and
+    used to make me such beautiful speeches that I never thought to
+    ask if he were a good man; and when father and mother opposed
+    him so bitterly that we had to meet by stealth, he was always so
+    considerate, and yet so determined, that he seemed to me like an
+    angel till we were married, and then it was too late to do
+    anything but accept my fate. I think he expected father to
+    forgive us and take us home, and when he found these
+    expectations false he became both ugly and sullen, and so my
+    life is nothing but a burden to me, and I almost wish I was
+    dead. But I am very strong, and so is he, and so we are likely
+    to live on, pulling away at the chain that binds us, till both
+    are old and gray.
+
+    "Pretty talk for a young girl's reading, is it not? But it
+    relieves me to pour out my heart to some one that loves me, and
+    I know that you do. But I shall never talk like this to you
+    again or ever write you another letter. You are my father's
+    darling, and I want you to remain so, and if you think too much
+    of me, or spend your time in writing to me, he will find it out,
+    and that will help neither of us. So good-by, little Cynthia,
+    and do not be angry that I put a false address at the top of the
+    page, or refuse to tell you where I live, or where I am going.
+    From this hour Harriet is dead to you, and nothing shall ever
+    induce me to break the silence which should remain between us
+    but my meeting you in another world, where all the follies of
+    this will be forgotten in the love that has survived both life
+    and death.
+
+        "Your sorrowing but true sister,
+            "HARRIET."
+
+The date was forty years back, and the address was New York City--an
+address which she acknowledged to be false. The letter was without
+envelope.
+
+The only other allusion to this sister found in the letters was in a
+short note written by a person called Mary, and it ran thus:
+
+    "Do you know whom I have seen? Your sister Harriet. It was in
+    the depot at New Haven. She was getting off the train and I was
+    getting on, but I knew her at once for all the change which ten
+    years make in the most of us, and catching her by the arm, I
+    cried, 'Harriet, Harriet, where are you living?' How she blushed
+    and what a start she gave! but as soon as she saw who it was she
+    answered readily enough, 'In Marston,' and disappeared in the
+    crowd before I could say another word. Wasn't it a happy chance,
+    and isn't it a relief to know she is alive and well. As for her
+    looks, they were quite lively, and she wore nice clothing like
+    one in very good circumstances. So you see her marriage did not
+    turn out as badly as some thought."
+
+This was of old date also, and gave no clue to the sender, save such as
+was conveyed by the signature Mary. Mary what? Mr. Huckins was the only
+person who was likely to know.
+
+Frank, who had but little confidence in this man and none in his desire
+to be of use in finding the legal heir, still thought it best to ask him
+if there was any old friend of the family whose first name was Mary. So
+he went to Flatbush one afternoon, and finding the old miser in his
+house, put to him this question and waited for his reply.
+
+It came just as he expected, with a great show of willingness that yet
+was without any positive result.
+
+"Mary? Mary?" he repeated, "we have known a dozen Marys. Do you mean any
+one belonging to this town?"
+
+"I mean some one with whom your sister was intimate thirty years ago.
+Some one who knew your other sister, the one who married Smith; some one
+who would simply sign her first name in writing to Mrs. Wakeham, and who
+in speaking of Mrs. Smith would call her Harriet."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated the cautious Huckins, dropping his eyes for fear they
+would convey more than his tongue might deem fit. "I'm afraid I was too
+young in those days to know much about my sister's friends. Can you tell
+me where she lived, or give me any information beyond her first name by
+which I could identify her?"
+
+"No," was the lawyer's quick retort; "if I could I should not need to
+consult you; I could find the woman myself."
+
+"Ah, I see, I see, and I wish I could help you, but I really don't know
+whom you mean, I don't indeed, sir. May I ask where you got the name,
+and why you want to find the woman?"
+
+"Yes, for it involves your prospects. This Mary, whoever she may have
+been, was the one to tell Mrs. Wakeham that Harriet Smith lived in
+Marston. Doesn't that jog your memory, Huckins? You know you cannot
+inherit the property till it is proved that Harriet is dead and left no
+heirs."
+
+"I know," he whined, and looked quite disconsolate, but he gave the
+lawyer no information, and Frank left at last with the feeling that he
+had reached the end of his rope.
+
+As a natural result, his thoughts turned to Marston--were they ever far
+away from there? "I will go and ease my heart of some of its burden,"
+thought he; "perhaps my head may be clearer then, and my mind freer for
+work." Accordingly he took the train that day, and just as the dew of
+evening began to fall, he rode into Marston and stopped at Miss
+Cavanagh's door.
+
+He found Hermione sitting at an old harp. She did not seem to have been
+playing but musing, and her hands hung somewhat listlessly upon the
+strings. As she rose the instrument gave out a thrilling wail that woke
+an echo in his sensibilities for which he was not prepared. He had
+considered himself in a hopeful frame of mind, and behold, he was
+laboring instead under a morbid fear that his errand would be in vain.
+Emma was not present, but another lady was, whose aspect of gentle old
+age was so sweet and winning that he involuntarily bent his head in
+reverence to her, before Hermione could utter the introduction which was
+trembling on her tongue.
+
+"My father's sister," said she, "and our very dear aunt. She is quite
+deaf, so she would not hear you speak if you attempted it, but she reads
+faces wonderfully, and you see she is smiling at you as she does not
+smile at every one. You may consider yourself introduced."
+
+Frank, who had a tender heart for all misfortune, surveyed the old lady
+wistfully. How placid she looked, how at home with her thoughts! It was
+peacefulness to the spirit to meet her eye. Bowing again, he turned
+towards Hermione and remarked:
+
+"What a very lovely face! She looks as if she had never known anything
+but the pleasures of life."
+
+"On the contrary," returned Hermione, "she has never known much but its
+disappointments. But they have left no trace on her face, or in her
+nature, I think. She is an embodiment of trust, and in the great silence
+there is about her, she hears sounds and sees visions which are denied
+to others. But when did you come to Marston?"
+
+He told her he had just arrived, and, satisfied with the slight look of
+confusion which mantled her face at this acknowledgment, launched into
+talk all tending to one end, his love for her. But he did not reach that
+end immediately; for if the old lady could not hear, she could see, and
+Frank, for all his impetuosity, possessed sufficient restraint upon
+himself not to subject himself or Hermione to the criticism of even this
+most benignant relative. Not till Mrs. Lovell left the room, as she did
+after a while,--being a very wise old lady as well as mild,--did he
+allow himself to say:
+
+"There can be but one reason now for my coming to Marston--to see you,
+Miss Cavanagh; I have no other business here."
+
+"I thought," she began, with some confusion,--evidently she had been
+taken by surprise,--"that you were looking for some one, a Harriet
+Smith, I think, whom you had reason to believe once lived here."
+
+"I did come to Marston originally on that errand, but I have so far
+failed in finding any trace of her in this place that I begin to think
+we were mistaken in our inferences that she had ever lived here."
+
+"Yet you had reason for thinking that she did," Hermione went on, with
+the anxiety of one desirous to put off the declaration she probably saw
+coming.
+
+"Yes; we had reasons, but they prove to have been unfounded."
+
+"Was--was your motive for finding her an important one?" she asked, with
+some hesitation, and a look of curiosity in her fine eyes.
+
+"Quite; a fortune of some thousands is involved in her discovery. She is
+heiress to at least a hundred thousand dollars from a sister she has not
+seen since they were girls together."
+
+"Indeed!" and Hermione's eyes opened in some surprise, then fell before
+the burning light in his.
+
+"But do not let us talk of a matter that for me is now of secondary
+interest," cried he, letting the full stream of his ardor find its way.
+"You are all I can think of now; you, you, whom I have loved since I
+caught the first glimpse of your face one night through the window
+yonder. Though I have known you but a little while, and though I cannot
+hope to have awakened a kindred feeling in you, you have so filled my
+mind and heart during the few short weeks since I learned your name,
+that I find it impossible to keep back the words which the sight of your
+face calls forth. I love you, and I want to guard you from loneliness
+forever. Will you give me that sweet right?"
+
+"But," she cried, starting to her feet in an excitement that made her
+face radiantly beautiful, "you do not seem to think of my misfortune,
+my----"
+
+"Do you mean this scar?" he whispered softly, gliding swiftly to her
+side. "It is no misfortune in my eyes; on the contrary, I think it
+endears you to me all the more. I love it, Hermione, because it is a
+part of you. See how I feel towards it!" and he bent his head with a
+quick movement, and imprinted a kiss upon the mark she had probably
+never touched herself but with shrinking.
+
+"Oh!" went up from her lips in a low cry, and she covered her face with
+her hands in a rush of feeling that was not entirely connected with that
+moment.
+
+"Did you think I would let that stand in my way?" he asked, with a
+proud tenderness with which no sensitive woman could fail to be
+impressed. "It is one reason more for a man to love your beautiful face,
+your noble manners, your soft white hand. I think half the pleasure
+would be gone from the prospect of loving you if I did not hope to make
+you forget what you have perhaps too often remembered."
+
+She dropped her hands, and he saw her eyes fixed upon him with a strange
+look.
+
+"O how wicked I have been!" she murmured. "And what good men there are
+in the world!"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It is not goodness," he began, but she stopped him with a wave of her
+hand.
+
+A strange elation seemed to have taken hold of her, and she walked the
+floor with lifted head and sparkling eye.
+
+"It restores my belief in love," she exclaimed, "and in mankind." And
+she seemed content just to brood upon that thought.
+
+But he was not; naturally he wished for some assurance from her; so he
+stepped in her path as she was crossing the room, and, taking her by the
+hands, said, smilingly:
+
+"Do you know how you can testify your appreciation in a way to make me
+perfectly happy?"
+
+She shook her head, and tried to draw her hands away.
+
+"By taking a walk, the least walk in the world, beyond that wooden
+gate."
+
+She shuddered and her hands fell from his.
+
+"You do not know what you ask," said she; then after a moment, "it was
+that I meant and not the scar, when I spoke of my misfortune. I cannot
+go outside the garden wall, and I was wrong to listen to your words for
+a moment, knowing what a barrier this fact raises up between us."
+
+"Hermione,--" he was very serious now, and she gathered up all her
+strength to meet the questions she knew were coming,--"why cannot you go
+beyond the garden gate? Cannot you tell me? Or do you hesitate because
+you are afraid I shall smile at your reasons for this determined
+seclusion?"
+
+"I am not afraid of your smiling, but I cannot give my reasons. That I
+consider them good must answer for us both."
+
+"Very well, then, we will let them answer. You need not take the walk I
+ask, but give me instead another pleasure--your promise to be my wife."
+
+"Your wife?"
+
+"Yes, Hermione."
+
+"With such a secret between us?"
+
+"It will not be a secret long."
+
+"Mr. Etheridge," she cried with emotion, "you do not know the woman you
+thus honor. If it had been Emma----"
+
+"It is you I love."
+
+"It would have been safe," she went on as if she had not heard him. "She
+is lovely, and amiable, and constant, and in her memory there is no dark
+scar as there is in mine, a scar deeper than this," she said, laying her
+finger on her cheek, "and fully as ineffaceable."
+
+"Some day you will take me into your confidence," he averred, "and then
+that scar will gradually disappear."
+
+"What confidence you have in me?" she cried. "What have you seen, what
+can you see in me to make you trust me so in face of my own words?"
+
+"I think it is the look in your eyes. There is purity there, Hermione,
+and a deep sadness which is too near like sorrow to be the result of an
+evil action."
+
+"What do you call evil?" she cried. Then suddenly, "I once did a great
+wrong--in a fit of temper--and I can never undo it, never, yet its
+consequences are lasting. Would you give your heart to a woman who could
+so forget herself, and who is capable of forgetting herself again if her
+passions are roused as they were then?"
+
+"Perhaps not," he acknowledged, "but my heart is already given and I do
+not know how to take it back."
+
+"Yet you must," said she. "No man with a career before him should marry
+a recluse, and I am that, whatever else I may or may not be. I would be
+doing a second ineffaceable wrong if I took advantage of your generous
+impulse and bound you to a fate that in less than two months would be
+intolerably irksome to one of your temperament."
+
+"Now you do not know me," he protested.
+
+But she heeded neither his words nor his pleading look.
+
+"I know human nature," she avowed, "and if I do not mingle much with
+the world I know the passions that sway it. I can never be the wife of
+any man, Mr. Etheridge, much less of one so generous and so
+self-forgetting as yourself."
+
+"Do you--are you certain?" he asked.
+
+"Certain."
+
+"Then I have not succeeded in raising one throb of interest in your
+breast?"
+
+She opened her lips and his heart stood still for her answer, but she
+closed them again and remained standing so long with her hands locked
+together and her face downcast, that his hopes revived again, and he was
+about to put in another plea for her hand when she looked up and said
+firmly:
+
+"I think you ought to know that my heart does not respond to your suit.
+It may make any disappointment which you feel less lasting."
+
+He uttered a low exclamation and stepped back.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said he, "I ought not to have annoyed you. You will
+forget my folly, I hope."
+
+"Do you forget it!" cried she; but her lips trembled and he saw it.
+
+"Hermione! Hermione!" he murmured, and was down at her feet before she
+could prevent it. "Oh, how I love you!" he breathed, and kissed her hand
+wildly, passionately.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+HOW MUCH DID IT MEAN?
+
+
+Frank Etheridge left the presence of Hermione Cavanagh, carrying with
+him an indelible impression of her slender, white-robed figure and
+pallid, passion-drawn face. There was such tragedy in the latter, that
+he shuddered at its memory, and stopped before he reached the gate to
+ask himself if the feeling she displayed was for him or another. If for
+another, then was that other Dr. Sellick, and as the name formed itself
+in his thoughts, he felt the dark cloud of jealousy creep over his mind,
+obscuring the past and making dangerous the future.
+
+"How can I know," thought he, "how can I know?" and just as the second
+repetition passed his lips, he heard a soft step near him, and, looking
+up, saw the gentle Emma watering her flowers.
+
+To gain her side was his first impulse. To obtain her confidence the
+second. Taking the heavy watering-pot from her hand, he poured its
+contents on the rose-bush she was tending, and then setting it down,
+said quietly:
+
+"I have just made your sister very unhappy, Miss Cavanagh."
+
+She started and her soft eyes showed the shadow of an alarm.
+
+"I thought you were her friend," she said.
+
+He drew her around the corner of the house towards the poplar trees.
+"Had I been only that," he avowed, "I might have spared her pain, but I
+am more than that, Miss Cavanagh, I am her lover."
+
+The hesitating step at his side paused, and though no great change came
+into her face, she seemed to have received a shock.
+
+"I can understand," said she, "that you hurt her."
+
+"Is she so wedded to the past, then?" he cried. "Was there some one, is
+there some one whom she--she----"
+
+He could not finish, but the candid-eyed girl beside him did not profess
+to misunderstand him. A pitiful smile crossed her lips, and she looked
+for a minute whiter than her sister had done, but she answered firmly:
+
+"You could easily overcome any mere memory, but the decision she has
+made never to leave the house, I fear you cannot overcome."
+
+"Does it spring--forgive me if I go beyond the bounds of discretion, but
+this mystery is driving me mad--does it spring from that past attachment
+you have almost acknowledged?"
+
+She drooped her head and his heart misgave him. Why should he hurt both
+these women when his whole feeling towards them was one of kindness and
+love?
+
+"Pardon me," he pleaded. "I withdraw the question; I had no right to put
+it."
+
+"Thank you," said she, and looked away from him towards the distant
+prospect of hill and valley lying before them.
+
+He stood revolving the matter in his disturbed mind.
+
+"I should have been glad to have been the means of happiness to your
+sister and yourself. Such seclusion as you have imposed upon yourselves
+seems unnecessary, but if it must be, and this garden wall is destined
+to be the boundary of your world, it would have been a great pleasure to
+me to have brought into it some freshness from the life which lies
+beyond it. But it is destined not to be."
+
+The sad expression in her face changed into one of wistfulness.
+
+"Then you are not coming any more?" said she.
+
+He caught his breath. There was disappointment in her tones and this
+could mean nothing but regret, and regret meant the loss of something
+which might have been hope. She felt, then, that he might have won her
+sister if he had been more patient.
+
+"Do you think it will do for me to come here after your sister has told
+me that it was useless for me to aspire to her hand?"
+
+She gave him for the first time a glance that had the element of
+mirthfulness in it.
+
+"Come as my friend," she suggested; then in a more serious mood added:
+"It is her only chance of happiness, but I do not know that I would be
+doing right in influencing you to pursue a suit which may not be for
+yours. _You_ know, or will know after reflection (and I advise you to
+reflect well), whether an alliance with women situated as we are would
+be conducive to your welfare. If you decide yes, think that a woman
+taken by surprise, as my sister undoubtedly was, may not in the first
+hurried moment of decision know her own mind, but also remember that no
+woman who has taken such a decision as she has, is cast in the common
+mould, and that you may but add to your regrets by a persistency she may
+never fully reward."
+
+Astonished at her manner and still more astonished at the intimation
+conveyed in her last words, he looked at her as one who would say:
+
+"But you also share her fate and the resolve that made it."
+
+She seemed to understand him.
+
+"Free Hermione," she whispered, "from the shackles she has wound about
+herself and you will free me."
+
+"Miss Emma," he began, but she put her finger on her lips.
+
+"Hush!" she entreated; "let us not talk any more about it. I have
+already said what I never meant should pass my lips; but the affection I
+bear my sister made me forget myself; she does so need to love and be
+loved."
+
+"And you think I----"
+
+"Ah, sir, you must be the judge of your own chances. You have heard her
+refusal and must best know just how much it means."
+
+"How much it means!" Long did Frank muse over that phrase, after he had
+left the sweet girl who had uttered it. As he sat with Edgar at supper,
+his abstracted countenance showed that he was still revolving the
+question, though he endeavored to seem at home with his friend and
+interested in the last serious case which had occupied the attention of
+the newly settled doctor. How much it means! Not much, he was beginning
+to say to himself, and insensibly his face began to brighten and his
+manner to grow less restrained, when Edgar, who had been watching him
+furtively, broke out:
+
+"Now you are more like yourself. Business responsibilities are as hard
+to shake off as a critical case in medicine."
+
+"Yes," was the muttered reply, as Frank rose from the table, and took
+the cigar his friend offered him. "And business with me just now is
+particularly perplexing. I cannot get any clue to Harriet Smith or her
+heirs, nor can the police or the presumably sharp detective I have put
+upon the search."
+
+"That must please Huckins."
+
+"Yes, confound him! such a villain as he is! I sometimes wonder if he
+killed his sister."
+
+"That you can certainly find out."
+
+"No, for she had a mortal complaint, and that satisfies the physicians.
+But there are ways of hastening a death, and those I dare avow he would
+not be above using. The greed in his eyes would do anything; it even
+suffices to make him my very good friend, now that he sees that he might
+lose everything by opposing me."
+
+"I am glad you see through his friendship."
+
+"See through a sieve?"
+
+"He plays his part badly, then?"
+
+"He cannot help it, with that face of his; and then he gave himself away
+in the beginning. No attitude he could take now would make me forget the
+sneak I saw in him then."
+
+This topic was interesting, but Edgar knew it was no matter of business
+which had caused the fitful changes he had been observing in Frank's
+tell-tale countenance. Yet he did not broach any other theme, and it was
+Frank who finally remarked:
+
+"I suppose you think me a fool to fix my heart on a woman with a
+secret."
+
+"Fool is a strong word," answered Edgar, somewhat bitterly, "but that
+you were unfortunate to have been attracted by Hermione Cavanagh, I
+think any man would acknowledge. You would acknowledge it yourself, if
+you stopped to weigh the consequences of indulging a passion for a woman
+so eccentric."
+
+"Perhaps I should, if my interest would allow me to stop. But it won't,
+Edgar; it has got too strong a hold upon me; everything else sinks in
+importance before it. I love her, and am willing to sacrifice something
+for her sake."
+
+"Something, perhaps; but in this case it would be everything."
+
+"I do not think so."
+
+"You do not think so now; but you would soon."
+
+"Perhaps I should, but it is hard to realize it. Besides, she would drop
+her eccentricities if her affections once became engaged."
+
+"Oh, if you have assurance of that."
+
+"Do I need assurance? Doesn't it stand to reason? A woman loved is so
+different from a woman----" scorned, he was going to say, but,
+remembering himself, added softly, "from a woman who has no one to think
+of but herself."
+
+"This woman has a sister," observed Edgar.
+
+Frank faltered. "Yes, and that sister is involved in her fate," thought
+he, but he said, quietly: "Emma Cavanagh does not complain of Hermione;
+on the contrary, she expresses the greatest affection for her."
+
+"They are both mysteries," exclaimed Edgar, and dropped the subject,
+though it was not half talked out.
+
+Frank was quite willing to accept his silence, for he was out of sorts
+with his friend and with himself. He knew his passion was a mad one, and
+yet he felt that it had made giant strides that day, and had really been
+augmented instead of diminished by the refusal he had received from
+Hermione, and the encouragement to persistence which he had received
+from her usually shy sister. As the evening wore on and the night
+approached, his thoughts not only grew in intensity, but deepened into
+tenderness. It was undoubtedly a passion that had smitten him, but that
+passion was hallowed by the unselfish feelings of a profound affection.
+He did not want her to engage herself to him if it would not be for her
+happiness. That it would be, every throb of his heart assured him, but
+he might be mistaken, and if so, better her dreams of the past than a
+future he could not make bright. He was so moved at the turmoil which
+his thoughts made in his usually quiet breast, that he could not think
+of sleep, but sat in his room for hours indulging in dreams which his
+practical nature would have greatly scorned a few short weeks before. He
+saw her again in fancy in every attitude in which his eyes had ever
+beheld her, and sanctified thus by distance, her beauty seemed both
+wonderful and touching. And that was not all. Some chord between them
+seemed to have been struck, and he felt himself drawn towards her as if
+(it was a strange fancy) she stood by that garden gate, and was looking
+in his direction with rapt, appealing eyes. So strong became that fancy
+at last, that he actually rose to his feet and went to the window which
+opened towards the south.
+
+"Hermione! Hermione!" broke in longing from his lips, and then annoyed
+at what he could not but consider a display of weakness on his part, he
+withdrew himself from the window, determined to forget for the moment
+that there lived for him such a cause for love and sorrow. But what man
+can forget by a mere effort of will, or what lover shut his eyes to the
+haunting vision which projects itself upon the inner consciousness. In
+fancy he saw her still, and this time she seemed to be pacing up and
+down the poplar walk, wringing her hands and wildly calling his name. It
+was more than he could bear. He must know if this was only an
+hallucination, and in a feverish impulse he rushed from his room with
+the intention of going to her at once.
+
+But he no sooner stood in the hall than he realized he was not alone in
+the house, and that he should have to pass Edgar's door. He naturally
+felt some hesitation at this and was inclined to give up his purpose.
+But the fever urging him on said no; so stealing warily down the hall he
+stepped softly by the threshold of his friend's room, when to his
+surprise he perceived that the door was ajar.
+
+Pushing it gently open he found the room brilliant with moonlight but
+empty. Greatly relieved and considering that the doctor had been sent
+for by some suffering patient, he passed at once out of the house.
+
+He went directly to that of Hermione, walking where the shadows were
+thickest as if he were afraid of being recognized. But no one was in the
+streets, and when he reached the point where the tall poplar-trees made
+a wall against the moonbeams, he slid into the deep obscurity he found
+there with a feeling of relief such as the heart experiences when it is
+suddenly released from some great strain.
+
+Was she in the poplar walk? He did not mean to accost her if she were,
+nor to show himself or pass beyond the boundary of the wall, but he must
+know if her restless spirit drove her to pace these moonlit walks, and
+if it were true or not that she was murmuring his name.
+
+The gate which opened in the wall at the side of the house was in a
+direct line with the window he had long ago fixed upon as hers. He
+accordingly took up his station at that spot and as he did so he was
+sure that he saw the flitting of some dark form amid the alternate bands
+of moonlight and shadow that lay across the weird pathway before him.
+Holding his breath he listened. Oh, the stillness of the night! How
+awesome and yet how sweet it was! But is there no break in the universal
+silence? Above his head the ever restless leaves make a low murmuring,
+and far away in the dim distances rises a faint sound that he cannot
+mistake; it is the light footfall of a dainty woman.
+
+He can see her now. She is coming towards him, her shadow gliding before
+her. Seeing it he quails. From the rush of emotion seizing him, he knows
+that he should not be upon this spot, and panting with the effort, he
+turns and flees just as the sudden sound of a lifted window comes from
+the house.
+
+That arrests him. Pausing, he looks up. It is her window that is open,
+and in the dark square thus made he sees her face bright with the
+moonlight streaming over it. Instantly he recovers himself. It is Emma's
+step, not Hermione's, he hears upon the walk. Hermione is above and in
+an anxious mood, for she is looking eagerly out and calling her sister
+by name.
+
+"I am coming," answers back the clear, low voice of Emma from below.
+
+"It is late," cries Hermione, "and very cold. Come in, Emma."
+
+"I am coming," repeated the young girl. And in another moment he heard
+her step draw nearer, saw her flitting figure halt for a moment on the
+door-step before him and then disappear just as the window closed above.
+He had not been observed.
+
+Relieved, he drew a long breath and leaned his head against the garden
+wall. Ah, how fair had been the vision of his beloved one's face in the
+moonlight. It filled him with indescribable thoughts; it made his spirit
+reel and his heart burn; it made him ten times her lover. Yet because he
+was her lover he felt that he ought not to linger there any longer; that
+the place was hallowed even from his presence, and that he should return
+at once to the doctor's house. But when he lifted his head he heard
+steps, this time not within the wall but on the roadside behind him, and
+alert at once to the mischievous surmises which might be aroused by the
+discovery of his presence there, he remained perfectly still in the hope
+that his form would be so lost in the deep shadows where he had
+withdrawn himself, that he would not be seen.
+
+But the person, whoever it was, had evidently already detected him, for
+the footsteps turned the corner and advanced rapidly to where he stood.
+Should he step forward and meet the intruder, or remain still and await
+the words of surprise he had every reason to expect? He decided to
+remain where he was, and in another moment realized his wisdom in doing
+so, for the footsteps passed on and did not halt till they had reached
+the gate. But they paused there and at once he felt himself seized by a
+sudden jealousy and took a step forward, eager to see what this man
+would do.
+
+He did not do much; he cast a look up at the house, and a heavy sigh
+broke from his lips; then he leaned forward and plucked a rose that grew
+inside the wall and kissed it there in the moonlight, and put it inside
+his breast-pocket; then he turned again towards the highway, and started
+back in surprise to see Frank Etheridge standing before him.
+
+"Edgar!" cried the one.
+
+"Frank!" exclaimed the other.
+
+"You have misled me," accused Frank; "you do love her, or you would not
+be here."
+
+"Love whom?" asked Edgar, bitterly.
+
+"Hermione."
+
+"Does Hermione tend the flowers?"
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Frank, understanding his friend for the first time;
+"it is Emma you are attached to. I see! I see! Forgive me, Edgar;
+passion is so blind to everything but its own object. Of course it is
+Emma; why shouldn't it be!"
+
+Yet for all its assurance his voice had strange tones in it, and Edgar,
+already annoyed at his own self-betrayal, looked at him suspiciously as
+they drew away together towards the main street.
+
+"I am glad to find this out," said Frank, with a hilarity slightly
+forced, or so thought his friend, who could not know what thoughts and
+hopes this discovery had awakened in the other's breast. "You have kept
+your secret well, but now that I know it you cannot refuse to make me
+your confidant, when there is so much to tell involving my happiness as
+well as your own."
+
+"I have no happiness, Frank."
+
+"Nor I; but I mean to have."
+
+"Mean to marry Miss Cavanagh?"
+
+"Of course, if I can induce her to marry me."
+
+"I do not mean to marry Emma."
+
+"You do not? Because she has a secret? because she is involved in a
+mystery?"
+
+"Partly; that would be enough, Frank; but I have another good reason.
+Miss Emma Cavanagh does not care for me."
+
+"You know that? You have asked her?"
+
+"A year ago; this is no sudden passion with me; I have loved her all my
+life."
+
+"Edgar! And you mean to give her up?"
+
+"Give her up?"
+
+"If I were you, nothing would induce me to resign my hopes, not even her
+own coldness. I _would_ win her. Have you tried again since your
+return?"
+
+"Frank, she is a recluse now; I could not marry a recluse; my wife must
+play her part in the world, and be my helpmate abroad as well as at
+home."
+
+"Yes, yes; but as I said in my own case, win her love and that will all
+right itself. No woman's resolve will hold out against a true passion."
+
+"But you forget, she has no true passion for me."
+
+Frank did not answer; he was musing over the subject. He had had an
+opportunity for seeing into the hearts of these girls which had been
+denied to Edgar. Had he seen love there? Yes, but in Hermione's breast,
+not Emma's. And yet Emma was deeply sad, and it was Emma whom he had
+just seen walking her restlessness off under the trees at midnight.
+
+"Edgar," he suddenly exclaimed, "you may not understand this girl. Their
+whole existence is a mystery, and so may their hearts be. Won't you tell
+me how it was she refused you? It may serve to throw some light upon the
+facts."
+
+"What light? She refused me as all coquettish women refuse the men whom
+they have led to believe in their affection."
+
+"Ah! you once believed, then, in her affection."
+
+"Should I have offered myself if I had not?"
+
+"I don't know; I only know I didn't wait for any such belief on the part
+of Hermione."
+
+"You are impulsive, Frank, I am not; I weigh well what I do, fortunately
+for myself."
+
+"Yet you did not prosper in this affair."
+
+"No, because I did not take a woman's waywardness into consideration. I
+thought I had a right to count upon her regard, and I found myself
+mistaken."
+
+"Explain yourself," entreated Frank.
+
+"Will not to-morrow do? Here we are at home, and it must be one o'clock
+at least."
+
+"I should sleep better if I knew it all now," Frank intimated.
+
+"Well, then, come to my room; but there is nothing in the story to
+specially interest you. I loved her----"
+
+"Edgar, you must be explicit. I am half lawyer in listening to this
+tale; I want to understand these girls."
+
+"Girls? It is of Emma only that I have to speak."
+
+"I know, but tell the story with some details; tell me where you first
+met her."
+
+"Oh, if I must," sighed Edgar, who hated all talk about himself, "let's
+be comfortable." And throwing himself into a chair, he pointed out
+another to Frank.
+
+"This is more like it," acknowledged the latter.
+
+Edgar lit a cigar; perhaps he felt that he could hide all emotion behind
+its fumes. Frank did not take one.
+
+"I have known Emma Cavanagh ever since we were children," began Edgar.
+"As a school-boy I thought her the merriest-eyed witch in town.---- Is
+she merry now?"
+
+Frank shook his head.
+
+"Well, I suppose she has grown older, but then she was as full of
+laughter and fun as any blue-eyed Mischief could well be, and I, who
+have a cynical turn of mind, liked the brightness of hers as I shall
+never like her sadness--if she is sad. But that was in my adolescence,
+and being as shy as I was inclined to be cynical, I never showed her my
+preference, or even joined the mirthful company of which she was the
+head. I preferred to stand back and hear her laughter, or talk to
+Hermione while watching her sister."
+
+"Ah!" thought Frank.
+
+"When I went to college she went to school, and when I graduated as a
+doctor she was about graduating also. But she did not come home at that
+time for more than a fleeting visit. Friends wished her company on a
+trip abroad, and she went away from Marston just as I settled here for
+my first year of practice. I was disappointed at this, but I made what
+amends to myself I could by cultivating the acquaintance of her father,
+and making myself necessary to him by my interest in his studies. I
+spent much of my spare time at the house, and though I never asked after
+Emma, I used to get continual news of her from her sister."
+
+"Ah!" again ejaculated Frank to himself.
+
+"At last she returned, and--I do not know how she looks now, but she
+was pretty then, wonderfully pretty, and more animated in her manner
+than any other woman I have ever seen. I saw her first at a picnic, and
+though I lacked courage to betray the full force of my feeling, I
+imagined she understood me, for her smiles became dazzling, and she
+joked with everybody but me. At last I had her for a few minutes to
+myself, and then the pent up passion of months had its way, and I asked
+her to be my wife. Frank, you may find it easy to talk about these
+things, but I do not. I can only say she seemed to listen to me with
+modest delight, and when I asked her for her answer she gave me a look I
+shall never forget, and would have spoken but that her father called her
+just then, and we were obliged to separate. I saw her for just another
+moment that day, but there were others about, and I could only whisper,
+'If you love me, come to the ball next week'; to which she gave me no
+other reply than an arch look and a smile which, as I have said before,
+appeared to promise me all I could desire. Appeared, but did not; for
+when I called at the house the next day I was told that Mr. Cavanagh was
+engaged in an experiment that could not be interrupted, and when I asked
+to see the ladies received word that they were very busy preparing for
+the ball and could see no one. Relieved at this, for the ball was near
+at hand, I went home, and being anxious to do the honorable thing, I
+wrote to Mr. Cavanagh, and, telling him that I loved his daughter,
+formally asked for the honor of her hand. This note I sent by a
+messenger.
+
+"I did not receive an immediate reply (why do you want all these
+particulars, Frank?); but I did not worry, for her look was still warm
+in my memory. But when two days passed and no message arrived I became
+uneasy, and had it not been for the well-known indifference of Mr.
+Cavanagh to all affairs of life outside of his laboratory, I should have
+given up in despair. But as it was, I kept my courage up till the night
+of the ball, when it suddenly fell, never to rise again. For will you
+believe it, Frank, she was not there, nor any of her family, though all
+had engaged to go, and had made many preparations for the affair, as I
+knew."
+
+"And did no letter come? Did you never see Miss Cavanagh again, or any
+of her family?"
+
+"I received a note, but it was very short, though it was in Emma's
+handwriting. She had not been well, was her excuse, and so could not be
+present at the ball. As for the offer I had been kind enough to make
+her, it was far above her deserts, and so must be gratefully declined.
+Then came a burst of something like contrition, and the prayer that I
+would not seek to make her alter her mind, as her decision was
+irrevocable. Added to this was one line from her father, to the effect
+that interesting as our studies were, he felt compelled to tell me he
+should have no further time to give to them at present, and so bade me a
+kindly adieu. Was there ever a more complete dismissal? I felt as if I
+had been thrust out of the house."
+
+Frank, who was nothing if not sympathetic, nodded quickly, but did not
+break into those open expressions of indignation which his friend had
+evidently anticipated. The truth was, he was too busy considering the
+affair, and asking himself what part Hermione had taken in it, and
+whether all its incongruities were not in some way due to her. He was so
+anxious to assure himself that this was not so, that he finally asked:
+
+"And was that the end? Did you never see any of them again?"
+
+"I did not wish to," was the answer. "I had already thought of trying my
+fortunes in the West, and when this letter came, it determined me. In
+three weeks I had left Marston as I thought forever, but I was not
+successful in the West."
+
+"And you will be here," observed Frank.
+
+"I think so," said Edgar, and became suddenly silent.
+
+Frank looked at him a long time and then said quietly:
+
+"I am glad you love her still."
+
+Edgar, flushing, opened his lips, but the other would not listen to any
+denial.
+
+"If you had not loved her, you would not have come back to Marston, and
+if you did not love her still, you would not pluck roses from her wall
+at midnight."
+
+"I was returning from a patient," objected Edgar, shortly.
+
+"I know, but you _stopped_. You need not blush to own it, for, as I say,
+I think it a good thing that you have not forgotten Miss Cavanagh." And
+not being willing to explain himself further, Frank rose and sauntered
+towards the door. "We have talked well into the night," he remarked;
+"supposing we let up now, and continue our conversation to-morrow."
+
+"I am willing to let up," acquiesced Edgar, "but why continue to-morrow?
+Nothing can be gained by fruitless conjectures on this subject, while
+much peace of mind may be lost by them."
+
+"Well, perhaps you are right," quoth Frank.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+FRESH DOUBTS.
+
+
+Frank was recalled to business the next day by the following letter from
+Flatbush:
+
+    DEAR MR. ETHERIDGE:
+
+    It has been discovered this afternoon that Mr. Huckins has left
+    town. When he went or where he has gone, no one seems to know.
+    Indeed, it was supposed that he was still in the house, where he
+    has been hiding ever since the investigations were over, but a
+    neighbor, having occasion to go in there to-day, found the
+    building empty, and all of Mr. Huckins' belongings missing. I
+    thought you would like to know of this disappearance.
+
+        Yours truly,
+            A. W. SENEY.
+
+As this was an affair for the police, Frank immediately returned to New
+York; but it was not many days before he was back again in Marston,
+determined to see Miss Cavanagh once more, and learn if his suit was as
+really hopeless as it appeared. He brought a box of some beautiful
+orchids with him, and these he presented to Miss Emma as being the one
+most devoted to flowers.
+
+Hermione looked a little startled at his presence, but Mrs. Lovell, the
+dear old lady who was paying them a visit, smiled gently upon him, and
+he argued well from that smile, knowing that it was not without its
+meaning from one whose eyes were so bright with intelligence as her's.
+
+The evening was cool for summer, and a fire had been lighted in the
+grate. By this fire they all sat and Frank, who was strangely happy,
+entertained the three recluses with merry talk which was not without a
+hidden meaning for one of the quiet listeners. When the old aunt rose
+and slipped away, the three drew nearer, and the conversation became
+more personal. At last--how was it done--Emma vanished also, and Frank,
+turning to utter some witty speech, found only Hermione's eyes
+confronting him in the fire-glow. At once the words faltered on his
+tongue, and leaning forward he reached out his hand, for she was about
+to rise also.
+
+"Do not rob me of this one moment," he prayed. "I have come back, you
+see, because I could not stay away. Say that it does not anger you; say
+that I may come now and then and see your face, even if I may not hope
+for all that my heart craves."
+
+"Do I look angry?" she asked, with a sad smile.
+
+"No," he whispered; "nor do you look glad."
+
+"Glad," she murmured, "glad"; and the bitterness in her tone revealed
+to him how strong were the passions that animated her. "I have no
+business with gladness, not even if my own fate changed. I have
+forfeited all joy, Mr. Etheridge; and that I thought you understood."
+
+"You speak like one who has committed a crime," he smiled; "nothing else
+should make you feel as you do."
+
+She started and her eyes fell. Then they rose suddenly and looked
+squarely into his. "There are other crimes than those which are marked
+by blood," said she. "Perhaps I am not altogether guiltless."
+
+Frank shuddered; he had expected her to repel the charge which he had
+only made in the hopes of showing her into what a morbid condition she
+had fallen.
+
+"My hands are clean," she went on, "but my soul is in shadow. Why did
+you make me speak of it? You are my friend and I want to keep your
+friendship, but you see why it must not grow into love; _must not_ I
+say, for both our sakes. It would be fatal."
+
+"I do not see that," he cried impetuously. "You do not make me see it.
+You hint and assert, but you tell me nothing. You should give me facts,
+Hermione, and then I could judge whether I should go or stay."
+
+She flushed, and her face, which had been lifted to his, slowly sank.
+
+"You do not know what you ask of me," she murmured.
+
+"I know that I have asked you to be my wife."
+
+"And it was generous of you, very generous. Such generosity merits
+confidence, but--Let us talk of something else," she cried. "I am not
+fit--not well enough, I mean, to speak of serious matters to-night. Tell
+me about your affairs. Tell me if you have found Harriet Smith."
+
+"No," he returned, greatly disappointed, for there had been something
+like yielding in her manner a moment before. "There is no Harriet Smith,
+and I do not even know that there is a Hiram Huckins, for he too has
+disappeared and cannot be found."
+
+"Hiram Huckins?"
+
+"Yes, her brother and the brother of Mrs. Wakeham, whose will has made
+all this trouble. He is the heir who will inherit her property if
+Harriet Smith or her children cannot be found, and as the latter
+contingency is not likely to happen, it is odd that he should have run
+away without letting us know where he can be found."
+
+"Is he a good man?"
+
+"Hardly. Indeed I consider him a rascal; but he has a good claim on the
+property, as I have already said, and that is what angers me. A hundred
+thousand dollars should not fall into the hands of one so mean and
+selfish as he is."
+
+"Poetic justice is not always shown in this world. Perhaps if you found
+the true heirs, you would find them also lacking in much that was
+admirable."
+
+"Possibly; but they would not be apt to be as bad as he is."
+
+"Is he dishonest?"
+
+"I do not like to accuse him, but neither would I like to trust him
+with another man's money."
+
+"That is unfortunate," said she. "And he will really have this money if
+you do not find any nearer heirs?"
+
+"Certainly; his name follows theirs in the will."
+
+"It is a pity," she observed, rising and moving towards the harp. "Do
+you want to hear a song that Emma composed when we were happier than we
+are now?"
+
+"Indeed I do," was his eager reply. "Sing, I entreat you, sing; it will
+make me feel as if the gloom was lifting from between us."
+
+But at this word, she came quickly back and sat down in her former place
+by the fire.
+
+"I do not know what came over me," said she; "I never sing." And she
+looked with a severe and sombre gaze into the flames before her.
+
+"Hermione, have you no right to joy, or even to give joy to others?"
+
+"Tell me more about the case that is interesting you. Supposing you
+found Harriet Smith or her children?"
+
+"I would show them the will and put them in the way of securing their
+fortune."
+
+"_I_ should like to see that will."
+
+"Would you?"
+
+"Yes, it would interest me."
+
+"You do not look very interested."
+
+"Do I not? Yet I am, I assure you."
+
+"Then you shall see it, or rather this newspaper copy of it which I
+happen to have in my pocket-book."
+
+"What, that little slip?"
+
+"It is not very large."
+
+"I thought a will was something ponderous."
+
+"Sometimes it is, but this is short and very much to the point; it was
+drawn up in haste."
+
+"Let me take it," said she.
+
+She took it and carried it over to the lamp. Suddenly she turned about
+and her face was very white.
+
+"What odd provision is this," she cried, "about the heir being required
+to live a year in the house where this woman died?"
+
+"Oh," said he, "that is nothing; any one who inherits this money would
+not mind such a condition as that. Mrs. Wakeham wanted the house fitted
+up, you see. It had been her birthplace."
+
+Hermione silently handed him back the slip. She looked so agitated that
+he was instantly struck by it.
+
+"Why are you affected by this?" he cried. "Hermione, Hermione, this is
+something to _you_!"
+
+She roused herself and looked calmly at him, shaking her head.
+
+"You are mistaken," she declared. "It is nothing to me."
+
+"To some one you know, then,--to your sister?"
+
+"How could it be anything to her, if not to me?"
+
+"True; I beg your pardon; but you seem to feel a personal
+disappointment."
+
+"You do not understand me very well," said she, and turned towards the
+door in welcome of her sister, who just then came in. She was followed
+by Doris with a tray on which were heaped masses of black and white
+cherries in bountiful profusion.
+
+"From our own trees," said Emma, as she handed him a plate.
+
+He made his acknowledgments, and leaned forward to take the cherries
+which Doris offered him.
+
+"Sir," whispered that woman, as she pushed into view a little note which
+she held in her hand under the tray, "just read this, and I won't
+disobey you again. It's something you ought to know. For the young
+ladies' sakes do read it, sir."
+
+He was very angry, and cast her a displeased look, but he took the note.
+Hermione was at the other end of the room, and Emma was leaning over her
+aunt, so the action was not seen; but he felt guilty of a discourtesy
+for all that, and ate his cherries with a disturbed mind. Doris, on the
+contrary, looked triumphant, and passed from one to the other with a
+very cheerful smile.
+
+When Frank arrived home he read that note. It was from Doris herself,
+and ran thus:
+
+    "Something has happened to the young ladies. They were to have
+    had new dresses this month, and now they say they must make the
+    old ones do. There is less too for dinner than there was, and if
+    it were not for the fruit on our trees we would not have always
+    enough to eat. But that is not the worst; Miss Emma says I shall
+    have to leave them, as they cannot pay me any longer for my
+    work. As if I would leave them, if I starved! Do, do find out
+    what this means, for it is too much to believe that they are
+    going to be poor with all the rest they have to endure."
+
+Find out what it meant! He knew what it meant; they had sacrificed their
+case, and now they must go hungry, wear old clothes, and possibly do
+their own work. It made him heart-sick; it made him desperate; it made
+him wellnigh forget her look when she said: "Our friendship must not
+grow into love, _must not_, I say, for both our sakes. It would be
+fatal."
+
+He resolved to see Hermione the next morning, and, if possible,
+persuade her to listen to reason, and give up a resolve that endangered
+both her own and her sister's future comfort.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+IN THE NIGHT WATCHES.
+
+
+Meantime in the old house Hermione sat watching Emma as she combed out
+her long hair before the tiny mirror in their bedroom. Her face,
+relieved now from all effort at self-control, betrayed a deep
+discouragement, which deepened its tragic lines and seemed to fill the
+room with gloom. Yet she said nothing till Emma had finished her task
+and looked around, then she exclaimed:
+
+"Another curse has fallen upon us; we might have been rich, but must
+remain poor. Do you think we can bear many more disappointments, Emma?"
+
+"I do not think that I can," murmured Emma, with a pitiful smile. "But
+what do you mean by riches? Gaining our case would not have made us
+rich."
+
+"No."
+
+"Has--has Mr. Etheridge offered himself? Have you had a chance of _that_
+happiness, and refused it?"
+
+Hermione, who had been gazing almost sadly at her sister as she spoke
+the foregoing words, flushed, half angrily, half disdainfully, and
+answered with sufficient bitterness in her voice:
+
+"Could I accept any man's devotion _now_! Could I accept even _his_ if
+it were offered to me? Emma, your memory seems very short, or you have
+never realized the position in which I stand."
+
+Emma, who had crimsoned as painfully as her sister at that one
+emphasized word, which suggested so much to both sisters, did not answer
+for a moment, but when she did her words came with startling
+distinctness.
+
+"You do me wrong; I not only have realized, to the core of my heart,
+your position and what it demands, but I have shared it, as you know,
+and never more than when the question came up as to whether we girls
+could marry with such a shadow hanging over us."
+
+"Emma, what do you mean?" asked Hermione, rising and confronting her
+sister, with wide open, astonished eyes. For Emma's appearance was
+startling, and might well thrill an observer who had never before seen
+her gentleness disturbed by a passion as great as she herself might
+feel.
+
+But Emma, at the first sight of this reflection of her own emotions in
+Hermione's face, calmed her manner, and put a check upon her expression.
+
+"If you do not know," said she, "I had rather not be the one to tell
+you. But never say again that I do not realize your position."
+
+"Emma, Emma," pursued Hermione, without a change of tone or any
+diminution in the agitation of her manner to show that she had heard
+these words, "have _you_ had a lover and I not know it? Did you give up
+that _when_----" The elder sister choked; the younger smiled, but with
+an infinite sadness.
+
+"I should not have spoken of it," said she; "I would not have done so,
+but that I hoped to influence you to look on this affair with different
+eyes. I--I believe you ought to embrace this new hope, Hermione. Do but
+tell him----"
+
+"_Tell him_! that would be a way to gain him surely."
+
+"I do not think it would cause you to lose him; that is, if you could
+assure him that your heart is free to love him as such a man ought to be
+loved."
+
+The question in these words made Hermione blush and turn away; but her
+emotion was nothing to that of the quieter sister, who, after she had
+made this suggestion, stood watching its effect with eyes in which the
+pain and despair of a year seemed at once to flash forth to light.
+
+"I honor him," began Hermione, in a low, broken voice, "but you know it
+was not honor simply that I felt for----"
+
+"Do not speak his name," flashed out Emma. "He--you--do not care for
+each other, or--or--you and I would never be talking as we are doing
+here to-night. I am sure you have forgotten him, Hermione, for all your
+hesitations and efforts to be faithful. I have seen it in your eyes for
+weeks, I have heard it in your voice when you have spoken to this new
+friend. Why then deceive yourself; why let a worn-out memory stand in
+the way of a new joy, a real joy, an unsullied and wholly promising
+happiness?"
+
+"Emma! Emma, what has come to you? You never talked to me like this
+before. Is it the memory of this folly only that stands in the way of
+what you so astonishingly advocate? Can a woman situated as I am, give
+herself up to any hope, any joy?"
+
+"Yes, for the situation will change when you yield yourself once again
+to the natural pleasures of life. I do not believe in the attitude you
+have taken, Hermione; I have never believed in it, yet I have cheerfully
+shared it because, because--you know why; do not let us talk of those
+days."
+
+"You do not know all my provocation," quoth Hermione.
+
+"Perhaps not, but nothing can excuse the sacrifice you are making of
+your life. Consider, Hermione. Why should you? Have you not duties to
+the present, as well as to the past? Should you not think of the long
+years that may lie between this hour and a possible old age, years which
+might be filled with beneficence and love, but which now----"
+
+"Emma, Emma, what are you saying? Are you so tired of sharing my fate
+that you would try to make me traitor to my word, traitor to my
+love----"
+
+"Hush," whispered again Emma, "you do not love _him_. Answer me, if you
+do. Plunge deep into your heart, and say if you feel as you did once; I
+want to hear the words from your lips, but be honest."
+
+"Would it be any credit to me if I did not? Would you think more of me
+if I acknowledged the past was a mistake, and that I wrecked my life for
+a passion which a year's absence could annul."
+
+But the tender Emma was inexorable, and held her sister by the hands
+while she repeated.
+
+"Answer, answer! or I shall take your very refusal for a reply."
+
+But Hermione only drooped her head, and finally drew away her hands.
+
+"You seem to prefer the cause of this new man," she murmured ironically.
+"Perhaps you think he will make the better brother-in-law."
+
+The flush on Emma's cheek spread till it dyed her whole neck.
+
+"I think," she observed gravely, "that Mr. Etheridge is the more devoted
+to you, Hermione. Dr. Sellick--" what did not that name cost her?--"has
+not even looked up at our windows when riding by the house."
+
+Hermione's eye flashed, and she bounded imperiously to her feet.
+
+"And that is why I think that he still remembers. And shall I forget?"
+she murmured more softly, "while he cherishes one thought of grief or
+chagrin over the past?"
+
+Emma, whose head had fallen on her breast, played idly with her long
+hair, and softly drew it across her face.
+
+"If you knew," she murmured, "that he did not cherish one thought such
+as you imagine, would you then open your heart to this new love and the
+brightness in the world and all the hopes which belong to our time of
+life."
+
+"If, if," repeated Hermione, staring at the half-hidden face of her
+sister as at some stranger whom she had found persistent and
+incomprehensible. "I don't know what you mean by your _ifs_. Do you
+think it would add to my content and self-satisfaction to hear that I
+had reared this ghastly prison which I inhabit on a foundation of sand,
+and that the walls in toppling would crash about my ears and destroy me?
+You must have a strange idea of a woman's heart, if you thought it would
+make me any readier to face life if I knew I had sacrificed my all to a
+chimera."
+
+Emma sighed. "Not if it gave you a new hope," she whispered.
+
+"Ah," murmured Hermione, and her face softened for the first time. "I
+dare not think of that," she murmured. "I dare not, Emma; I DARE NOT."
+
+The younger sister, as if answered, threw back her hair and looked at
+Hermione quite brightly.
+
+"You will come to dare in time," said she, and fled from the room like a
+spirit.
+
+When she was gone, Hermione stood still for many minutes; then she
+began quietly to let down her own hair. As the long locks fell curling
+and dark about her shoulders, a dreamier and dreamier spirit came upon
+her, mellowing the light in her half-closed eyes, and bringing such a
+sweet, half-timid, half-longing smile to her lips that she looked the
+embodiment of virginal joy. But the mood did not last long, and ere the
+thick curls were duly parted and arranged for the night, the tears had
+begun to fall, and the sobs to come till she was fain to put out her
+light and hide behind the curtains of her bed the grief and remorse
+which were pressing upon her.
+
+Meanwhile Emma had stolen to her aunt's room, and was kneeling down
+beside her peaceful figure.
+
+"Aunt, dear Aunt," she cried, "tell me what my duty is. Help me to
+decide if Hermione should be told the truth which we have so long kept
+from her."
+
+She knew the old lady could not hear, but she was in the habit of
+speaking to her just as if she could, and often through some subtle
+sympathy between them the sense of her words was understood and answered
+in a way to surprise her.
+
+And in this case Mrs. Lovell seemed to understand, for she kissed Emma
+with great fondness, and then, taking the sweet, troubled, passionate
+face between her two palms, looked at her with such love and sympathy
+that the tears filled Emma's eyes, for all her efforts at self-control.
+
+"Tell her," came forth at last, in the strange, loud tones of the
+perfectly deaf, "and leave the rest to God. You have kept silence, and
+the wound has not healed; now try the truth, and may heaven bless you
+and the two others whom you desire to make happy."
+
+And Emma, rising up, thanked God that he had left them this one blessing
+in their desolation--this true-hearted and tender-souled adviser.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That night, as Hermione was tossing in a restless sleep, she suddenly
+became aware of a touch on her shoulder, and, looking up, she saw her
+sister standing before her, with a lighted candle in her hand, and her
+hair streaming about her.
+
+"What is the matter?" she cried, bounding up in terror, for Emma's face
+was livid with its fixed resolve, and wore a look such as Hermione had
+never seen there before.
+
+"Nothing," cried the other, "nothing; only I have something to tell
+you--something which you should have known a long time ago--something
+about which you should never have been deceived. It is this, Hermione.
+It was not you Dr. Sellick wished to marry, but myself." And with the
+words the light was blown out, and Hermione found herself alone.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+THE SECRET OF THE LABORATORY.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+THE BEGINNING OF CHANGES.
+
+
+As Frank went by the house early the next morning on his way to the
+train, he paused and glanced at one of the upper windows, where he had
+once before seen Hermione's face looking out. The blinds were closed,
+but the slats were slightly turned, and through them he thought, but he
+could not be quite sure, he caught the glimpse of a pair of flashing
+eyes. In the hope that this was so, he laid his hand upon the gate and
+then glanced up again, as if asking permission to open it. The blinds
+moved and in another instant fell back, and he saw the face he loved,
+looking very pale but sweet, bending towards him from the clustering
+honeysuckles.
+
+"May I come in," he asked, "just for a few words more? You know we were
+interrupted last night."
+
+She shook her head, and his heart sank; then she seemed to repent her
+decision and half opened her lips as if to speak, but no words came. He
+kept his hand on the gate, and his face grew eloquent.
+
+"You cannot say no," he now pleaded, smiling at the blush that was
+slowly mantling on her cheek. "I may not be here again for weeks, and if
+you do not let me say good-by I shall always think I have displeased
+you, and that will not add to my happiness or peace."
+
+"Wait," came in sudden eagerness from her lips, and he saw her disappear
+from the window and appear, almost before he could realize his own
+relief, in the open door-way before him. "Come in," said she, with the
+first full glad smile he had ever seen on her lips.
+
+But though he bounded up the steps he did not enter the house. Instead
+of that he seized her hand and tried to induce her to come out in the
+open air to him. "No close rooms," said he, "on such a morning as this.
+Come into the poplar-walk, come; let me see you with the wind blowing
+your hair about your cheeks."
+
+"No, no!" burst from her lips in something almost like fright. "Emma
+goes into the garden, but not I. Do not ask me to break the habit of
+months, do not."
+
+But he was determined, tenderly, firmly determined.
+
+"I must," said he; "I must. Your white cheeks and worn face demand the
+freshness of out-door air. I do not say you must go outside the gate,
+but I do say you must feel again what it is to have the poplars rustle
+above your head and the grass close lovingly over your feet. So come,
+Hermione, come, for I will not take no, I will not, even from the lips
+whose business it shall be to command me in everything else."
+
+His eyes entreated her, his hand constrained her; she sought to do
+battle with his will, but her glances fell before the burning ardor of
+his. With a sudden wild heave of her breast, she yielded, and he drew
+her down into the garden and so around to the poplar-walk. As she went
+the roses came out on her cheeks, and she seemed to breathe like a
+creature restored to life.
+
+"Oh, the blue, blue sky!" she cried, "and oh, the hills! I have not seen
+them for a year. As for the poplars, I should love to kiss their old
+boughs, I am so glad to be beneath them once more."
+
+But as she proceeded farther her spirits seemed to droop again, and she
+cast him furtive looks as much as to say:
+
+"Is it right? ought I to be enjoying all this bliss?"
+
+But the smile on his face was so assured, she speedily took courage
+again, and allowed him to lead her to the end of the poplar-walk, far up
+in those regions where his eye had often strayed but his feet never been
+even in fancy. On a certain bench they sat down, and he turned towards
+her a beaming face.
+
+"Now I feel as if you were mine," he cried. "Nothing shall part us after
+this, not even your own words."
+
+But she put her hands out with a meek, deprecating gesture, very unlike
+the imperious one she had indulged in before.
+
+"You must not say that," she cried. "My coming out may have been a
+weakness, but it shall not be followed by what you yourself might come
+to regard as a wrong. I am here, and it was for your pleasure I came,
+but that commits me to nothing and you to nothing, unless it be to the
+momentary delight. Do you hear that bird sing?"
+
+"You are lovely with that flickering sunlight on your face," was all the
+reply he made.
+
+And perhaps he could have made no better, for it gave her a sweet sense
+of helplessness in the presence of this great love, which to a woman who
+had been so long bearing herself up in solitary assertion had all the
+effect of rest and relief.
+
+"You make me feel as if my youth was not quite gone," said she; "but,"
+she added, as his hand stole towards hers, "you have not yet made me
+feel that I must listen to all the promptings of love. There is a gulf
+between me and you across which we cannot shake hands. But we can speak,
+friend, to one another, and that is a pleasure to one who has travelled
+so long in a wilderness alone. Shall we not let that content us, or do
+you wish to risk life and all by attempting more?"
+
+"I wish to risk everything, anything, so as to make you mine."
+
+"You do not know what you are saying. We are talking pure foolishness,"
+was her sudden exclamation, as she leapt to her feet. "Here, in this
+pure air, and in sight of the fields and hills, the narrow, confining
+bands which have held me to the house seem to lose their power and
+partake of the unsubstantiality of a dream. But I know that with my
+recrossing of the threshold they will resume their power again, and I
+shall wonder I could ever talk of freedom or companionship with one who
+does not know the secrets of the house or the shadow which has been cast
+by them upon my life."
+
+"You know them, and yet you would go back," he cried. "I should say the
+wiser course would be to turn away from a place so fatal to your
+happiness and hopes, and, yielding to my entreaties, go with me to the
+city, where we will be married, and----"
+
+"Frank, what a love you have for me! a love which questions nothing, not
+even my past, notwithstanding I say it is that past which separates us
+and makes me the recluse I am."
+
+"You have filled me with trust by the pure look in your eyes," said he.
+"Why should I ask you to harrow up your feelings by telling me what you
+would have told me long ago, if it had not been too painful?"
+
+"You are a great, good man," she cried. "You subdue me who have never
+been subdued before, except by my own passionate temper. I reverence you
+and I--love--you. Do not ask me to say anything more." And the queenly,
+imperious form swayed from side to side, and the wild tears gushed
+forth, and she fled from his side down the poplar-walk, till she came
+within sight of the house, when she paused, gathering up her strength
+till he reached the place where she stood, when she said:
+
+"You are coming again, some time?"
+
+"I am coming again in a week."
+
+"You will find a little packet awaiting you in the place where you stay.
+You will read it before you see me again?"
+
+"I will read it."
+
+"Good-by," said she; and her face in its most beautiful aspect shone on
+him for a moment; then she retreated, and was lost to his view in the
+shrubbery.
+
+As he passed the house on his way to the gate, he saw Doris casting
+looks of delight down the poplar-walk, where her young mistress was
+still straying, and at the same instant caught a hurried glimpse of Mrs.
+Lovell and Emma, leaning from the window above, in joyful recognition of
+the fact that a settled habit had been broken, and that at his
+inducement Hermione had consented to taste again the out-door air.
+
+He was yet in time for the train, for he had calculated on this visit,
+and so made allowances for it. He was therefore on the point of turning
+towards the station, when he saw the figure of a man coming down the
+street, and stopped, amazed. Was it--could it be--yes, it was Hiram
+Huckins. He was dressed in black, and looked decent, almost trim, but
+his air was that of one uncertain of himself, and his face was
+disfigured by an ingratiating leer which Etheridge found almost
+intolerable. He was the first to speak.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Etheridge?" said he, ambling up, and bowing with
+hypocritical meekness. "You didn't expect to see me here, did you? But
+business calls me. My poor, dear sister Harriet is said to have been in
+Marston, and I have come to see if it is true. I do not find her, do
+you?"
+
+The sly, half-audacious, half-deprecating look with which he uttered
+these words irritated Frank beyond endurance.
+
+"No," he rejoined. "Your valuable time will be wasted here. You will
+have to look elsewhere for your _dear_ sister."
+
+"It has taken you a long time to find that out," insinuated the other,
+with his most disagreeable leer. "I suppose, now, you thought till this
+very last night that you would find her in the graveyard or in some of
+these old houses. Else why should you waste _your_ valuable time in a
+place of such mean attractions."
+
+They were standing directly in front of the Cavanagh house and Frank was
+angry enough to lift his hand against him at these words, for the old
+man's eyes--he was not old but he always presented the appearance of
+being so--had wandered meaningly towards the windows above him, as if he
+knew that behind them, instead of in any graveyard, centred the real
+attractions of the place for Frank.
+
+But though a lawyer may have passions, he, as a rule, has learned to
+keep a curb upon them, especially in the presence of one who is likely
+to oppose him.
+
+So bowing with an effort at politeness, young Etheridge acknowledged
+that he had only lately given up his hope, and was about to withdraw in
+his haste to catch the train, when Huckins seized him by the arm with a
+low chuckle and slyly whispered:
+
+"You've been visiting the two pretty hermitesses, eh? Are they nice
+girls? Do they know anything about my sister? You look as if you had
+heard good news somewhere. Was it in there?"
+
+He was eager; he was insinuating; he seemed to hang upon Frank's reply.
+But the lawyer, struck and troubled by this allusion to the women he so
+cherished, on lips he detested beyond any in the world, stood still for
+a moment, looking the indignation he dared not speak.
+
+Huckins took advantage of this silence to speak again, this time with an
+off-hand assurance only less offensive than his significant remarks.
+
+"I know they keep at home and do not go out in the world to hear the
+gossip. But women who keep themselves shut up often know a lot about
+what is going on around them, Mr. Etheridge, and as you have been there
+I thought--"
+
+"Never mind what you thought," burst out Frank, unable to bear his
+insinuations any longer. "Enough that I do not go there to hear anything
+about Harriet Smith. There are other law cases in the world besides
+yours, and other clients besides your sister and her heirs. These young
+ladies, for instance, whom you speak of so freely."
+
+"I am sure," stammered Huckins, with great volubility, and an air of
+joviality which became him as little as the suspicious attitude he had
+hitherto taken, "I never meant to speak with the least disrespect of
+ladies I have never met. Only I was interested you know, naturally
+interested, in anything which might seem to bear upon my own affairs.
+They drag so, don't they, Mr. Etheridge, and I am kept so long out of my
+rights."
+
+"No longer than justice seems to demand, Mr. Huckins; your sister, and
+her heirs, if they exist, have rights also."
+
+"So you say," quoth Huckins, "and I have learned not to quarrel with a
+lawyer. Good-day, Mr. Etheridge, good-day. Hope to hear that some
+decision has been arrived at soon."
+
+"Good-day," growled Frank, and strode rapidly off, determined to return
+to Marston that very night if only to learn what Huckins was up to. But
+before he had gone a dozen steps he came quickly back and seized that
+person by the arm. "Where are you going?" he asked; for Huckins had laid
+his hand on Miss Cavanagh's gate and was about to enter.
+
+"I am going to pay a visit," was the smiling reply. "Is there anything
+wrong in that?"
+
+"I thought you did not know these young ladies--that they were strangers
+to you?"
+
+"So they are, so they are, but I am a man who takes a great interest in
+eccentric persons. I am eccentric myself; so was my sister Cynthia; so I
+may say was Harriet, though how eccentric we have still to find out. If
+the young ladies do not want to see an old man from New York they can
+say so, but I mean to give them the chance. Have you anything to say
+against it?"
+
+"No, except that I think it an unwarrantable intrusion about which you
+had better think twice."
+
+"I have thought," retorted Huckins, with a mild obstinacy that had a
+sinister element in it, "and I can't deny myself the pleasure. Think of
+it! two healthy and beautiful girls under twenty-four who never leave
+the house they live in! That is being more unlike folks than Cynthia and
+myself, who were old and who had a fortune to guard. Besides we did
+leave the house, or rather I did, when there was business to look after
+or food to buy. But they don't go out for anything, I hear, _anything_.
+Mr. Ruthven--he is the minister you know--has given me his card by way
+of introduction; so you see they will have to treat me politely, and
+that means I shall at least see their faces."
+
+His cunning, his satisfaction, and a certain triumph underlying all,
+affected Frank like the hiss of a serpent. But the business awaiting him
+in New York was imperative, and the time remaining to him before the
+train left was barely enough to enable him to reach the station. So
+curbing his disgust and the dread he had of seeing this knave enter
+Hermione's door, he tore himself away and made what haste he could to
+the station. He arrived just as the first whistle of the coming train
+was heard, and owing to a short delay occasioned by the arrival of a
+telegram at the station, he was enabled to write two notes, one to Miss
+Cavanagh and one to Dr. Sellick. These he delivered to Jerry, with
+strict injunctions to deliver them immediately, and as the train moved
+off carrying him back to his duties, he had the satisfaction of seeing
+the lumbering figure of that slow but reliable messenger disappear
+around the curve in the highway which led directly to Miss Cavanagh's
+house.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+A STRANGE VISITOR.
+
+
+Frank's visit and interview with Hermione had this advantage for the
+latter, that it took away some of the embarrassment which her first
+meeting with Emma, after the revelations of the night before, had
+necessarily occasioned. She had breakfasted in her own room, feeling
+that it would be impossible for her to meet her sister's eye, but having
+been led into giving such proof of her preference for Mr. Etheridge, and
+the extent of his influence over her, there could of course be no
+further question of Dr. Sellick, or any need for explanations between
+herself and Emma regarding a past thus shown to be no longer of vital
+interest to her. When, therefore, she came in from the garden and saw
+Emma waiting for her at the side-door, she blushed, but that was all, in
+memory of the past night; and murmuring some petty commonplace, sought
+to pass her and enter again the house which she had not left before in a
+full year.
+
+But Emma, who was bright with a hope she had not felt in months, stopped
+her with a word.
+
+"There is an old man waiting in the parlor who says he wants to see us.
+He sent in this card--it has Dr. Ruthven's name on it--and Doris says he
+seemed very eager and anxious. Can you guess who he can be?"
+
+"No," rejoined Hermione, wondering. "But we can soon see. Our visitors
+are not so numerous that we can afford to slight one." And tripping by
+Emma, she led the way into the parlor.
+
+A slight, meagre, eager-eyed man, clad in black and wearing a
+propitiatory smile on very thin lips, rose as she entered, and bowed
+with an awkward politeness that yet had something of the breeding of a
+gentleman in it.
+
+Hermione did not like his looks, but she advanced cordially enough,
+perhaps because her heart was lighter than usual, and her mind less
+under the strain of one horrible fixed idea than it had been in months.
+
+"How do you do?" said she, and looked at him inquiringly.
+
+Huckins, with another bow, this time in recognition of her unexpected
+beauty and grace, shambled uneasily forward, and said in a hard,
+strained voice which was even more disagreeable than his face:
+
+"I am sure you are very good to receive me, Miss Cavanagh. I--I had a
+great desire to come. Your father----"
+
+She drew back with a gasp.
+
+"My father----" she repeated.
+
+"Was an old friend of mine," he went on, in a wheedling tone, in
+seeming oblivion of the effect his words had had upon her. "Did you
+never hear him speak of Hope, Seth Hope?"
+
+"Never," cried Hermione, panting, and looking appealingly at Emma, who
+had just entered the room.
+
+"Yet we were friends for years," declared the dissimulator, folding his
+hands with a dreary shake of his head.
+
+"For years?" repeated Emma, advancing and surveying him earnestly.
+
+"Our father was a much older man than you, Mr.--Mr. Hope."
+
+"Perhaps, perhaps, I never saw him. But we corresponded for years. Have
+you not come across letters signed by my name, in looking over his
+effects?"
+
+"No," answered Emma, firmly, while Hermione, looking very pale,
+retreated towards the door, where she stopped in mingled distress and
+curiosity.
+
+"Then he must have destroyed them all," declared their visitor. "Some
+people do not keep letters. Yet they were full of information, I assure
+you; full, for it was upon the ever delightful subject of chemistry we
+corresponded, and the letters I wrote him sometimes cost me a week's
+effort to indite."
+
+Emma, who had never met a man like this before, looked at him with
+wide-open eyes. Had Hermione not been there, she would have liked to
+have played with his eccentricities, and asked him numberless questions.
+But with her sister shrinking in the doorway, she dared not encourage
+him to pursue a theme which she perceived to be fraught with the keenest
+suffering for Hermione. So she refrained from showing the distrust which
+she really felt, and motioning the old man to sit down, asked, quietly:
+
+"And was it for these letters you came? If so, I am sorry that none such
+have been found."
+
+"No, no," cried Huckins, with stammering eagerness, as he marked the
+elder sister's suspicious eyes and unencouraging manner. "It was not to
+get them back that I ventured to call upon you, but for the pleasure of
+seeing the house where he lived and did so much wonderful work, and the
+laboratory, if you will be so good. Why has your sister departed?" he
+suddenly inquired, in fretful surprise, pointing to the door where
+Hermione had stood a moment before.
+
+"She probably has duties," observed Emma, in a troubled voice. "And she
+probably was surprised to hear a stranger ask to see a room no one but
+the members of his family have entered since our father's death."
+
+"But I am not a stranger," artfully pursued the cringing Huckins,
+making himself look as benevolent as he could. "I am an admirer, a
+devoted admirer of your remarkable parent, and I could show you
+papers"--but he never did,--"of writing in that same parent's hand, in
+which he describes the long, narrow room, with its shelves full of
+retorts and crucibles, and the table where he used to work, with the
+mystic signs above it, which some said were characters taken from
+cabalistic books, but which he informed me were the new signs he wished
+to introduce into chemistry, as being more comprehensive and less liable
+to misinterpretation than those now in use."
+
+"You do seem to know something about the room," she murmured softly, too
+innocent to realize that the knowledge he showed was such as he could
+have gleaned from any of Mr. Cavanagh's intimate friends.
+
+"But I want to see it with my own eyes. I want to stand in the spot
+where he stood, and drink in the inspiration of his surroundings, before
+I go back to my own great labor."
+
+"Have you a laboratory? Are you a chemist?" asked Emma, interested in
+despite of the dislike his wheedling ways and hypocritical air naturally
+induced.
+
+"Yes, yes, I have a laboratory," said he; "but there is no romance about
+mine; it is just the plain working-room of a hard-working man, while
+his----"
+
+Emma, who had paled at these words almost as much as her sister had done
+at his first speech about her father, recoiled with a look in which the
+wonderment was strangely like fear.
+
+"I cannot show you the room," said she. "You exaggerate your desire to
+see it, as you exaggerate the attainments and the discoveries of my
+father. I must ask you to excuse me," she continued, with a slight
+acknowledgment in which dismissal could be plainly read. "I am very
+busy, and the morning is rapidly flying. If you could come again----"
+
+But here Hermione's full deep tones broke from the open doorway.
+
+"If he wishes to see the place where father worked, let him come; there
+is no reason why we should hide it from one who professes such sympathy
+with our father's pursuits."
+
+Huckins, chuckling, looked at Emma, and then at her sister, and moved
+rapidly towards the door. Emma, who had been taken greatly by surprise
+by her sister's words, followed slowly, showing more and more
+astonishment as Hermione spoke of this place, or that, on their way
+up-stairs, as being the spot where her father's books were kept, or his
+chemicals stored, till they came to the little twisted staircase at the
+top, when she became suddenly silent.
+
+It was now Emma's turn to say:
+
+"This is the entrance to the laboratory. You see it is just as you have
+described it."
+
+Huckins, with a sly leer, stepped into the room, and threw around one
+quick, furtive look which seemed to take in the whole place in an
+instant. It was similar to his description, and yet it probably struck
+him as being very different from the picture he had formed of it in his
+imagination. Long, narrow, illy lighted, and dreary, it offered anything
+but a cheerful appearance, even in the bright July sunshine that sifted
+through the three small windows ranged along its side. At one end was a
+row of shelves extending from the floor to the ceiling, filled with
+jars, chemicals, and apparatus of various kinds. At the other end was a
+table for collecting gases, and beneath each window were more shelves,
+and more chemicals, and more apparatus. A large electric machine perched
+by itself in one corner, gave a grotesque air to that part of the room,
+but the chief impression made upon an observer was one of bareness and
+desolation, as of the husk of something which had departed, leaving a
+smell of death behind. The girls used the room for their dreary midnight
+walks; otherwise it was never entered, except by Doris, who kept it in
+perfect order, as a penance, she was once heard to declare, she having a
+profound dislike to the place, and associating it always, as we have
+before intimated, with some tragic occurrence which she believed to have
+taken place there.
+
+Huckins, after his first quick look, chuckled and rubbed his hands
+together, in well-simulated glee.
+
+"Do I see it?" he cried; "_the room_ where the great Cavanagh thought
+and worked! It is a privilege not easily over-estimated." And he flitted
+from shelf to drawer, from drawer to table, with gusts of enthusiasm
+which made the cold, stern face of Hermione, who had taken up her stand
+in the doorway, harden into an expression of strange defiance.
+
+Emma, less filled with some dark memory, or more swayed by her anxiety
+to fathom his purposes, and read the secret of an intrusion which as yet
+was nothing but a troublous mystery to her, had entered the room with
+him, and stood quietly watching his erratic movements, as if she half
+expected him to abstract something from the hoard of old chemicals or
+collection of formulas above which he hung with such a pretence of
+rapture.
+
+"How good! how fine! how interesting!" broke in shrill ejaculation from
+his lips as he ambled hither and thither. But Emma noticed that his eye
+ever failed to dwell upon what was really choice or unique in the
+collection of her father's apparatus, and that when by chance he touched
+an alembic or lifted a jar, it was with an awkwardness that betrayed an
+unaccustomed hand.
+
+"You do not hold a retort in that way," she finally remarked, going up
+to him and taking the article in question out of his hand. "This is how
+my father was accustomed to handle them," she proceeded, and he, taken
+aback for the instant, blushed and murmured something about her father
+being his superior and she the very apt pupil of a great scholar and a
+very wise man.
+
+"You wanted to see the laboratory, and now you have seen it," quoth
+Hermione from her place by the door. "Is there anything else we can do
+for you?"
+
+The chill, stern tones seemed to rouse him and he turned towards the
+speaker.
+
+"No, no, my dear, no, no. You have been very good." But Emma noticed
+that his eyes still kept roaming here, there, and everywhere while he
+spoke, picking up information as a bird picks up worms.
+
+"What does he want?" thought she, looking anxiously towards her sister.
+
+"You have a very pleasant home," he now remarked, pausing at the head of
+those narrow stairs and peering into the nest of Hermione's own room,
+the door of which stood invitingly open. "Is that why you never leave
+it?" he unexpectedly asked, looking with his foxy eyes from one sister
+to the other.
+
+"I do not think it is necessary for us to answer you," said Emma, while
+Hermione, with a flash in her eye, motioned him imperiously down, saying
+as she slowly followed him:
+
+"Our friends do not consider it wise to touch upon that topic, how much
+more should a stranger hesitate before doing so?"
+
+And he, cowering beneath her commanding look and angry presence, seemed
+to think she was right in this and ventured no more, though his restless
+eyes were never still, and he appeared to count the very banisters as
+his hand slid down the railing, and to take in every worn thread that
+showed itself in the carpet over which his feet shuffled in almost
+undignified haste.
+
+When they were all below, he made one final remark:
+
+"Your father owed me money, but I do not think of pressing my claim. You
+do not look as if you were in a position to satisfy it."
+
+"Ah," exclaimed Emma, thinking she had discovered the motive of his
+visit at last; "that is why you wanted to see the laboratory."
+
+"Partly," he acknowledged with a sly wink, "but not altogether. All
+there is there would not buy up the I. O. U. I hold. I shall have to let
+the matter go with other bad debts I suppose. But three hundred dollars
+is a goodly sum, young ladies, a goodly sum."
+
+Emma, who knew that her father had not been above borrowing money for
+his experiments, looked greatly distressed for a moment, but Hermione,
+who had now taken her usual place as leader, said without attempting to
+disguise the tone of suspicion in her voice:
+
+"Substantiate your claim and present your bill and we will try to pay
+it. We have still a few articles of furniture left."
+
+Huckins, who had never looked more hypocritically insinuating or more
+diabolically alert, exclaimed,
+
+"I can wait, I can wait."
+
+But Hermione, with a grand air and a candid look, answered bitterly and
+at once:
+
+"What we cannot do now we can never do. Our fortunes are not likely to
+increase in the future, so you had better put in your claim at once, if
+you really want your pay."
+
+"You think so?" he began; and his eye, which had been bright before,
+now gleamed with the excitement of a fear allayed. "I----"
+
+But just then the bell rang with a loud twang, and he desisted from
+finishing his sentence.
+
+Emma went to the door and soon came back with a letter which she handed
+to Hermione.
+
+"The man Jerry brought it," she explained, casting a meaning look at her
+sister.
+
+Hermione, with a quick flush, stepped to the window and in the shadow of
+the curtains read her note. It was a simple word of warning.
+
+    DEAR MISS CAVANAGH:
+
+    I met a man at your gate who threatened to go in. Do not receive
+    him, or if you have already done so, distrust every word he has
+    uttered and cut the interview short. He is Hiram Huckins, the
+    man concerning whom I spoke so frankly when we were discussing
+    the will of the Widow Wakeham.
+
+        Yours most truly,
+            FRANK ETHERIDGE.
+
+The flush with which Hermione read these lines was quite gone when she
+turned to survey the intruder, who had forced himself upon her
+confidence and that of her sister by means of a false name. Indeed she
+looked strangely pale and strangely indignant as she met his twinkling
+and restless eye, and, to any one who knew the contents of the note
+which she held, it would seem that her first words must be those of
+angry dismissal.
+
+But instead of these, she first looked at him with some curiosity, and
+then said in even, low, and slightly contemptuous tones:
+
+"Will you not remain and lunch with us, Mr. Huckins?"
+
+At this unexpected utterance of his name he gave a quick start, but soon
+was his cringing self again. Glancing at the letter she held, he
+remarked:
+
+"My dear young lady, I see that Mr. Etheridge has been writing to you.
+Well, there is no harm in that. Now we can shake hands in earnest"; and
+as he held out his wicked, trembling palm, his face was a study for a
+painter.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+TWO CONVERSATIONS.
+
+
+That afternoon, as Emma was sitting in her own room, she was startled by
+the unexpected presence of Hermione. As they were not in the habit of
+intruding upon each other above stairs, Emma rose in some surprise. But
+Hermione motioning her back into her chair, fell at her feet in sudden
+abandon, and, laying her head in her sister's lay, gave way to one deep
+sob. Emma, too much astonished to move at this unexpected humiliation of
+one who had never before bent her imperious head in that household,
+looked at the rich black locks scattered over her knees with wonder if
+not with awe.
+
+"Hermione!" she whispered, "Hermione! do not kneel to me, unless it be
+with joy."
+
+But the elder sister, clasping her convulsively around the waist,
+murmured:
+
+"Let me be humble for a moment; let me show that I have something in me
+besides pride, reckless endurance, and determined will. I have not shown
+it enough in the past. I have kept my sufferings to myself, and my
+remorse to myself, and alas! also all my stern recognition of your love
+and unparalleled devotion. I have felt your goodness, oh, I have felt
+it, so much so, at times, that I thought I could not live, ought not to
+live, just because of what I have done to _you_; but I never said
+anything, could not say anything! Yet all the remorse I experienced was
+nothing to what I experience now that I know I was not even loved----"
+
+"Hush," broke in Emma, "let those days be forgotten. I only felt that
+you ought to know the truth, because sweeter prospects are before you,
+and----"
+
+"I understand," murmured Hermione, "you are always the great-hearted,
+unselfishly minded sister. I believe you would actually rejoice to see
+me happy now, even if it did not release you from the position you have
+assumed. But it shall release you; you shall not suffer any longer on my
+account. Even if it is only to give you the opportunity of--of meeting
+with Dr. Sellick, you shall go out of this house to-day. Do you hear me,
+Emma, _to-day_?"
+
+But the ever-gentle, ever-docile Emma rose up at this, quite pale in her
+resolution. "Till you put foot out of the gate I remain this side of
+it," said she. "Nothing can ever alter my determination in this regard."
+
+And Hermione, surveying her with slowly filling eyes, became convinced
+that it would be useless to argue this point, though she made an effort
+to do so by saying with a noble disregard of her own womanly shame which
+in its turn caused Emma's eyes to fill:
+
+"Dr. Sellick has suffered a great wrong, I judge; don't you think you
+owe something to him?"
+
+But Emma shook her head, though she could not prevent a certain wistful
+look from creeping into her face. "Not what I owe to you," said she, and
+then flushed with distress lest her sister should misjudge the meaning
+of her words.
+
+But Hermione was in a rarely generous mood. "But I release you from any
+promise you have made or any obligations you may consider yourself to be
+under. Great heaven! do you think I would hold you to them _now_?"
+
+"I hold myself," cried Emma. "You cannot release me,--except," she
+added, with gentle intimation, "by releasing yourself."
+
+"I cannot release myself," moaned Hermione. "If we all perish I cannot
+release myself. _I_ am a prisoner to this house, but you----"
+
+"We are sister prisoners," interpolated Emma, softly. Then with a sudden
+smile, "I was in hopes that he who led you to break one resolution might
+induce you to break another."
+
+But Hermione, flushing with something of her old fire, cried out
+warmly: "In going out of the house I broke a promise made to myself, but
+in leaving the grounds I should--oh, I cannot tell you what I should do;
+not even you know the full bitterness of my life! It is a secret, locked
+in this shrinking, tortured heart, which it almost breaks, but does not
+quite, or I should not linger in this dreadful world to be a cause of
+woe to those I cherish most."
+
+"But Hermione, Hermione----"
+
+"You think you know what has set a seal on my lips, the gloom on my
+brow, the death in my heart; but you do not, Emma. You know much, but
+not the fatal grief, the irrepressible misery. But you shall know, and
+know soon. I have promised to write out the whole history of my life for
+Mr. Etheridge, and when he has read it you shall read it too. Perhaps
+when you learn what the real horror of this house has been, you may
+appreciate the force of will-power which it has taken for me to remain
+in it."
+
+Emma, who had never suspected anything in the past beyond what she
+herself knew, grew white with fresh dismay. But Hermione, seeing it,
+kissed her, and, speaking more lightly, said: "You kept back one vital
+secret from me in consideration of what you thought the limit of my
+endurance. I have done the same for you under the same consideration.
+Now we will equalize matters, and perhaps--who knows?--happier days may
+come, if Mr. Etheridge is not too much startled by the revelations I
+have to make him, and if Dr. Sellick--do not shrink, Emma--learns some
+magnanimity from his friend and will accept the explanations I shall
+think it my duty to offer him."
+
+But at this suggestion, so unlike any that had ever come from Hermione's
+lips before, the younger sister first stared, and then flung her arms
+around the speaker, with cries of soft deprecation and shame.
+
+"You shall not," she murmured. "Not if I lose him shall he ever know
+why that cruel letter was written. It is enough--it shall be
+enough--that he was dismissed _then_. If he loves me he will try his
+fate again. But I do not think he does love me, and it would be better
+for him that he did not. Would _he_ ever marry a woman who, not even at
+his entreaty, could be induced to cross the limits of her home?"
+
+"Mr. Etheridge should not do it either; but he is so generous--perhaps
+so hopeful! He may not be as much so when he has read what I have to
+write."
+
+"I think he will," said Emma, and then paused, remembering that she did
+not know all that her sister had to relate.
+
+"He would be a man in a thousand then," whispered the once haughty
+Hermione. "A man to worship, to sacrifice all and everything to, that it
+was in one's power to sacrifice."
+
+"He will do what is right," quoth Emma.
+
+Hermione sighed. Was she afraid of the right?
+
+Meantime, in the poplar-walk below, another talk was being held, which,
+if these young girls could have heard it, might have made them feel even
+more bitterly than before, what heavy clouds lay upon any prospect of
+joy which they might secretly cherish. Doris, who was a woman of many
+thoughts, and who just now found full scope for all her ideas in the
+unhappy position of her two dear young ladies, had gone into the open
+air to pick currants and commune with herself as to what more could be
+done to bring them into a proper recognition of their folly in clinging
+to a habit or determination which seemed likely to plunge them into such
+difficulties.
+
+The currant bushes were at the farther end of the garden near the
+termination of the poplar-walk, and when, in one of the pauses of her
+picking, she chanced to look up, she saw advancing towards her down that
+walk the thin, wiry figure of the old man who had taken luncheon with
+the young ladies, and whom they called, in very peculiar tones, she
+thought, Mr. Huckins. He was looking from right to left as he came, and
+his air was one of contemplation or that of a person who was taking in
+the beauties of a scene new to him and not wholly unpleasant.
+
+When he reached the spot where Doris stood eying him with some curiosity
+and not a little distrust, he paused, looked about him, and perceiving
+her, affected some surprise, and stepped briskly to where she was.
+
+"Picking currants?" he observed. "Let me help you. I used to do such
+things when a boy."
+
+Astonished, and not a little gratified at what she chose to consider his
+condescension, Doris smiled. It was a rare thing now for a man to be
+seen in this lonesome old place, and such companionship was not
+altogether disagreeable to Mistress Doris.
+
+Huckins rubbed his hands together in satisfaction at this smile, and
+sidled up to the simpering spinster with a very propitiatory air.
+
+"How nice this all is," he remarked. "So rural, so peaceful, and so
+pleasant. I come from a place where there is no fruit, nor flowers, nor
+young ladies. You must be happy here." And he gave her a look which she
+thought very insinuating.
+
+"Oh, I am happy enough," she conceded, "because I am bound to be happy
+wherever the young ladies are. But I could wish that things were
+different too." And she thought herself very discreet that she had not
+spoken more clearly.
+
+"Things?" he repeated softly.
+
+"Yes, my young ladies have odd ideas; I thought you knew."
+
+He drew nearer to her side, very much nearer, and dropped the currants
+he had plucked gently into her pail.
+
+"I know they have a fixed antipathy to going out, but they will get over
+that."
+
+"Do you think so?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Don't _you_?" he queried, with an innocent look of surprise. He was
+improving in his dissimulation, or else he succeeded better with those
+of whom he had no fear.
+
+"I don't know what to think. Are you an old friend of theirs?" she
+inquired. "You must be, to lunch with them."
+
+"I never saw them before to-day," he returned, "yet I am an old friend.
+Reason that out," he leered.
+
+"You like to puzzle folks," she observed, picking very busily but
+smiling all the while. "Do you give answers with your puzzles?"
+
+"Not to such sharp wits as yours. But how beautiful Miss Cavanagh is.
+Has she always had that scar?"
+
+"Ever since I knew her."
+
+"Pity she should have such a blemish. You like her, don't you, very
+much?"
+
+"I love her."
+
+"And her sister--such a sweet girl!"
+
+"I love them both."
+
+"That is right. I should be sorry to have any one about them who did not
+love them. _I_ love them, or soon shall, very much."
+
+"Are you," Doris inquired, with great inquisitiveness, "going to remain
+in Marston any time?"
+
+"I cannot say," sighed the old man; "I should like to. I should be very
+happy here, but I am afraid the young ladies do not like me well
+enough."
+
+Doris had cherished some such idea herself an hour ago, and had not
+wondered at it then, but now her feelings seemed changed.
+
+"Was it to see them you came to Marston?" said she.
+
+"Merely to see them," he replied.
+
+She was puzzled, but more eager than puzzled, so anxious was she to find
+some one who could control their eccentricities.
+
+"They will treat you politely," she assured him. "They are peculiar
+girls, but they are always polite."
+
+"I am afraid I shall not be satisfied with politeness," he insinuated.
+"I want them to love me, to confide in me. I want to be their friend in
+fact as I have so long been in fancy."
+
+"You are some relative of theirs," she now asserted, "or you knew their
+father well or their mother."
+
+"I wouldn't say no," he replied,--but to which of these three
+intimations, he evidently did not think it worth while to say.
+
+"Then," she declared, "you are the man I want. Mr. Etheridge--that is
+the lawyer from New York who has lately been coming here--does not seem
+to have much confidence in himself or me. But you look as if you might
+do something or suggest something. I mean about getting the young ladies
+to give up their whims."
+
+"Has this Mr.--Mr. Etheridge, did you call him?--been doing their
+business long?"
+
+"I never saw him here till a month ago."
+
+"Ah! a month ago! And do they like him? Do they seem inclined to take
+his advice? Does he press it upon them?"
+
+"I wish I knew. I am only a poor servant, remember, though my bringing
+up was as good almost as theirs. They are kind to me, but I do not sit
+down in the parlor; if I did, I might know something of what is going
+on. I can only judge, you see, by looks."
+
+"And the looks? Come, I have a _great_ interest in the young
+ladies--almost as great as yours. What do their looks say?--I mean since
+this young man came to visit them? He is a young man, didn't you say?"
+
+"Yes, he is young, and so good-looking. I have thought--now don't spill
+the currants, just as we have filled the pail--that he was a little
+sweet on Miss Hermione, and that that was why he came here so often, and
+not because he had business."
+
+"You have?" twitted the old man, almost dancing about her in his sudden
+excitement. "Well, well, that must be seen to. A wedding, eh, a wedding?
+That's what you think is coming?" And Doris could not tell whether it
+was pleasure or alarm that gave so queer a look to his eyes.
+
+"I cannot say--I wish I could," she fervently cried; "then I might hope
+to see a change here; then we might expect to see these two sweet young
+ladies doing like other folks and making life pleasant for themselves
+and every one about them. But Miss Hermione is a girl who would be very
+capable of saying no to a young man if he stood in the way of any
+resolve she had taken. I don't calculate much on her being influenced by
+love, or I would never have bothered you with my troubles. It is fear
+that must control her, or----" Doris paused and looked at him
+knowingly--"or she must be lured out of the house by some cunning
+device."
+
+Huckins, who had been feeling his way up to this point, brightened as
+he noticed the slyness of the smile with which she emphasized this
+insinuation, and from this moment felt more assured. But he said nothing
+as yet to show how he was affected by her words. There was another
+little matter he wanted settled first.
+
+"Do you know," he asked, "why she, and her sister, too, I believe, have
+taken this peculiar freak? Have they ever told you, or have you ever--"
+how close his head got to hers, and how he nodded and peered--"surprised
+their secret?"
+
+Doris shook her head. "All a mystery," she whispered, and began picking
+currants again, that operation having stopped as they got more earnest.
+
+"But it isn't a mystery," he laughed, "why you want to get them out of
+the house just _now_. I know your reason for that, and think you will
+succeed without any device of love or cunning."
+
+"I don't understand you," she protested, puckering her black brows and
+growing very energetic. "I don't want to do it _now_ any more than I
+have for the last twelve months. Only I am getting desperate. I am not
+one who can want a thing and be patient. I _want_ Miss Hermione Cavanagh
+and her sister to laugh and be gay like other girls, and till they give
+up all this nonsense of self-seclusion they never will; and so I say to
+myself that any measures are justifiable that lead to that end. Don't
+you think I am right?"
+
+He smiled warily and took her pail of currants from her hand.
+
+"I think you are the brightest woman and have one of the clearest heads
+I ever knew. I don't remember when I have seen a woman who pleased me so
+well. Shall we be friends? I am only a solitary bachelor, travelling
+hither and thither because I do not know how else to spend my money; but
+I am willing to work for your ends if you are willing to work for mine."
+
+"And what are they?" she simpered, looking very much delighted. Doris
+was not without ambition, and from this moment not without her hopes.
+
+"To make these young ladies trust me so that I may visit them off and on
+while I remain in this place. I thought it was pleasant here before, but
+_now_----" The old fellow finished with a look and a sigh, and Doris'
+subjugation was complete.
+
+Yet she did not let him at this time any further into her plans,
+possibly because she had not formed any. She only talked on more and
+more about her love for the young ladies, and her wonder over their
+conduct, and he, listening for any chance word which might help him in
+his own perplexity, walked back at her side, till they arrived in sight
+of the house, when he gave her the pail and slunk back to come on later
+alone. But a seed was sown at that interview which was destined to bear
+strange fruit; and it is hard telling which felt the most satisfaction
+at the understood compact between them--the hard, selfish, and scheming
+miser, or the weak and obstinate serving-woman, who excused to herself
+the duplicity of her conduct by the plea, true enough as far as it went,
+that she was prompted by love for those she served, and a desire to see
+the two women she admired as bright and happy as their youth and beauty
+demanded.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+SUSPENSE.
+
+
+The letter which Frank sent to Edgar described his encounter with
+Huckins, and expressed a wish that the Doctor would employ some proper
+person to watch his movements and see that he did not make himself
+disagreeable to the Misses Cavanagh, whom he had evidently set himself
+to annoy.
+
+What, then, was Etheridge's surprise to receive on the following day a
+reply from his friend, to the effect that Mr. Huckins had not only
+called upon the young ladies mentioned by him, but had made himself very
+much at home with them, having lunched, dined, and report even said
+breakfasted at their table.
+
+This was startling news to Frank, especially after the letter he had
+written to Hermione, but he restrained himself from returning at once to
+Marston, as he was half tempted to do, and wrote her again, this time
+beseeching her in plain words to have nothing to do with so suspicious a
+person as he knew this Huckins to be, and advised her where to appeal
+for assistance in case this intolerable intruder was not willing to be
+shaken off. This letter brought the following answer:
+
+    DEAR MR. ETHERIDGE:
+
+    Do not be concerned about us. Mr. Huckins will not trouble us
+    unduly. Knowing his character, we are not likely to be misled by
+    him, and it amuses us in our loneliness to have so queer and
+    surprising a person as our guest.
+
+    Aunt Lovell is very sharp and keeps a keen eye upon him. He does
+    not offend us except by his curiosity, but as that is excusable
+    in an old man introduced into a household like ours, we try to
+    make the best of it. When you come yourself we will dismiss the
+    intruder.
+
+        Ever sincerely yours,
+            HERMIONE CAVANAGH.
+
+This letter was put very near Frank's heart, but it did not relieve him
+from his anxiety. On the contrary, it added to his fears, because it
+added to his mystification. What did Huckins want of the Misses
+Cavanagh, and what was the real reason for the indulgence they showed
+him? Was there a secret in their connection which he ought to know? He
+began to hasten his business and plan to leave the city again, this time
+for more than a single night.
+
+Meantime, Dr. Sellick was not without his own secret doubts. Hide it as
+he would, he still cherished the strongest affection for the once
+dimpling, dainty, laughing-eyed Emma. Not a day passed but he had to
+combat a fervent desire to pass her gate, though when he yielded to this
+temptation he went by like an automaton, and never looked to right or
+left unless it was dark night. His was a proud soul and an exacting one.
+His self-esteem had been hurt, and he could not bring himself to make
+even the shadow of an advance towards one who had been the instrument of
+his humiliation. And yet he trembled when he thought of misfortune
+approaching her, and was almost as anxious as Frank about the presence
+in her house of the hypocritical and unprincipled Huckins. Had he
+listened only for a moment to the pleading of his better instincts, he
+would have gone to their door and lent his entreaties to those of Frank
+for a speedy dismissal of their unreliable guest; but the hour had not
+yet come for such a self-betrayal, and so he refrained, even while
+cursing himself for a pride which would not yield even at the impending
+danger of one so passionately beloved.
+
+He however kept a man at watch upon the suspected stranger, a precaution
+which certainly did not amount to much, as the danger, if there was any,
+was not one which a detective stationed outside of the Misses Cavanagh's
+house would be able to avert.
+
+Meanwhile Huckins, who was in his element, grew more insinuating and
+fatherly in his manner, day by day. To him this run of a house in which
+there lurked a mystery worth his penetrating, was a bliss that almost
+vied with that of feeling himself on the road to wealth. He pottered and
+poked about in the laboratory, till there was not a spot in the room or
+an article on the shelves which had not felt the touch of his hand; and
+Hermione and Emma, with what some might have thought a curious disregard
+of their father's belongings, let him do this, merely restricting him
+from approaching their own rooms. Possibly they felt as if some of the
+gloom of the place was lifted by the presence of even this evil-eyed old
+man; and possibly the shadows which were growing around them both, as
+Hermione labored day after day upon the history she was writing for her
+lover, made this and every other circumstance disconnected with the
+important theme they were considering, of little moment to them. However
+that may be, he came and went as he would, and had many sly hours in the
+long, dim laboratory and in the narrow twisted corridors at the back of
+the house, and what was worse and perhaps more disastrous still, on the
+stairs and in the open doorways with Doris, who had learned to toss her
+head and smile very curiously while busying herself in the kitchen, or
+taking those brief minutes of respite abroad, which the duties of the
+place demanded. And so the week passed, and Saturday night came.
+
+It was seven o'clock, and train-time, and the blinds in the Cavanagh
+house guarding the front windows were tipped just a little. Behind one
+of these sat Emma, listening to the restless tread of Hermione pacing
+the floor in the room above. She knew that the all-important letter was
+done, but she could not know its contents, or what their effect would be
+upon the free, light-hearted man whose approach they were expecting. She
+thought she ought to know all that Hermione had been through in the year
+which had passed, yet the wild words uttered by her sister in their late
+memorable interview, had left a doubt in her mind which a week's
+meditations had only served to intensify. Yet the fears to which it had
+given rise were vague, and she kept saying to herself: "There cannot be
+anything worse than I know. Hermione exaggerated when she intimated that
+she had a secret bitterer than that we keep together. She has suffered
+so much she cannot judge. I will hope that all will go right, and that
+Mr. Etheridge will receive her explanations and so make her his
+everlasting debtor. If once she is made to feel that she owes him
+something, she will gradually yield up her resolve and make both him and
+me happy. She will see that some vows are better broken than kept,
+and----"
+
+Here her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of Hermione. The
+latter had not been able to walk off her excitement, and so had come
+down-stairs to bear the moments of suspense with her sister.
+
+"I hope he will not stop," she cried. "I do not feel as if I could see
+him till----"
+
+"You will have to," murmured Emma, "for here he comes." And the next
+moment the ardent, anxious face of the young lawyer appeared at the
+gate, making the whole outside world seem brighter to one pair of eyes
+which watched him.
+
+"He wants to talk about our visitor," declared Hermione. "I cannot talk
+about anything so trivial to-day; so do you see him, and when he rises
+to go, say that Doris will bring a certain packet to his door to-night.
+I will not meet his eyes till that ordeal is passed." And with a gasp
+that showed what this moment was to her, she flew from the room, just as
+Doris' step was heard in the hall on her way to the front door.
+
+"Where is your sister?" were the first words uttered by Frank, as he
+came into the room.
+
+"Upstairs," answered Emma. "She does not feel as if she can see you
+again till everything is clear between you. The letter she promised is
+written, and you shall have it to-night. Then if you wish to come
+again----" her smile completed the sentence.
+
+He took heart at this smile.
+
+"I do not doubt," said he, "that I shall be here very early in the
+morning." And then he glanced all around him.
+
+"Does Huckins still bother you?" he asked.
+
+"Oh," she cried, with some constraint, "we allow him to come here. 'Tis
+the least we can do for one----"
+
+She paused, and seemed to bite off her words.
+
+"Do not let us talk of trivialities," she completed, "till the great
+question of all is settled. To-morrow, if you come, we will speak of
+this visitor of whom you so little approve."
+
+"Very well," he rejoined, with some wistfulness, and turned with his
+usual impetuosity towards the door. "I will go to Dr. Sellick's, then,
+at once, that I may receive your sister's communication the sooner. Tell
+her every moment will be an hour till it is in my hands."
+
+"Doris will carry it to you as soon as it is dark. Had we known you were
+going to stop here, she might have had it ready now. As it is, look for
+it as I have said, and may it bring you no deeper pain than the mystery
+of our seclusion has already done. Hermione has noble qualities, and if
+her temper had never been injured by the accident which befell her in
+her infancy, there might have been no call for Doris' errand to-night."
+
+"I will remember that," said he, and left the house with the confident
+smile of a man who feels it impossible to doubt the woman towards whom
+his heart has gone out in the fullest love.
+
+When the door was shut behind him, Hermione came stealing again
+down-stairs.
+
+"Does he--is he--prepared to receive the letter?" she asked.
+
+Emma nodded. "I promised that it should go as soon as it is dusk."
+
+"Then send Doris to me in half an hour; and do not try to see me again
+to-night. I must bear its long and tedious hours alone." And for a
+second time Hermione disappeared from the room.
+
+In half an hour Doris was sent upstairs. She found Hermione standing in
+the centre of her room with a thick packet in her hand. She was very
+pale and her eyes blazed strangely. As Doris advanced she held out the
+packet with a hand that shook notwithstanding all her efforts to render
+it firm.
+
+"Take this," she said; "carry it to where Mr. Etheridge stays when here,
+and place it in his hands yourself, just as you did a former note I
+entrusted to you."
+
+Doris, with a flush, seized the letter, her face one question, but her
+lips awed from speaking by the expression of her mistress' face.
+
+"You will do what I say?" asked Hermione.
+
+The woman nodded.
+
+"Go then, and do not wait for an answer; there will be none to-night."
+
+Her gesture of dismissal was imperative and Doris turned to go.
+
+But Hermione had one word more to say. "When you come back," she added,
+"come to my door and tap on it three times. By that I shall know you
+have delivered the letter; but you need not come in."
+
+"Very well, Miss," answered the woman, speaking for the first time. And
+as Hermione turned her back, she gave her young mistress one burning,
+inquisitive look and then slid out of the room with her eyes on the
+packet which she almost seemed to devour with her eyes.
+
+As she passed the laboratory door she detected the thin weasel-like face
+of Huckins looking out.
+
+"What is that?" he whispered, pointing eagerly at the packet.
+
+"Be in the highway at Dobbins' corner, and I'll tell you," she slyly
+returned, going softly on her way.
+
+And he, with a chuckle which ought to have sounded through that house
+like a premonition of evil, closed the laboratory door with a careful
+hand, and descending the twisted staircase which led to the hall below,
+prepared to follow out her injunction in his own smooth and sneaking
+way.
+
+"I think I'll spend the evening at the prayer-meeting," he declared,
+looking in at Emma, as he passed the sitting-room door. "I feel the need
+of such comfort now and then. Is there anything I can do for either of
+you up street?"
+
+Emma shook her head; she was glad to be rid of his company for this one
+evening; and he went out of the front door with a quiet, benevolent air
+which may not have imposed on her, but which certainly did on Doris, who
+was watching from the garden to see him go.
+
+They met, as she had suggested, at Dobbins' corner. As it was not quite
+dark, they walked into a shaded and narrow lane where they supposed
+themselves to be free from all observation.
+
+"Now tell me," said he, "what your errand is. That it is important I
+know from the way you look. What is it, good, kind Doris; anything that
+will help us in our plans?"
+
+"Perhaps," said she. "It is a letter for Mr. Etheridge; see how big and
+thick it is. It ought to tell a deal, this letter; it ought to explain
+why she never leaves the house."
+
+The woman's curious excitement, which was made up of curiosity and a
+real desire to know the secret of what affected her two young mistresses
+so closely, was quickly communicated to the scheming, eager old man.
+Taking the packet from her hand, he felt of it with trembling and
+inquisitive fingers, during which operation it would have been hard to
+determine upon which face the desire to break the seal was most marked.
+
+"It may contain papers--law papers," he suggested, his thumb and
+forefinger twitching as they passed over the fastening.
+
+But Doris shook her head.
+
+"No," she declared vivaciously, "there are no law-papers in that
+envelope. She has been writing and writing for a week. It is her secret,
+I tell you--the secret of all their queer doings, and why they stay in
+the house so persistently."
+
+"Then let us surprise that secret," said he. "If we want to help them
+and make them do like other reasonable folks, we must know with what we
+have to contend."
+
+"I am sure we would be justified," she rejoined. "But I am afraid Miss
+Hermione will find us out. Mr. Etheridge will tell her somebody meddled
+with the fastening."
+
+"Let me take the letter to the hotel, and I will make that all right. It
+is not the first----" But here he discreetly paused, remembering that
+Doris was not yet quite ready to receive the full details of his
+history.
+
+"But the time? It will take an hour to open and read all there is
+written here, and Miss Hermione is waiting for me to tell her that I
+have delivered it to Mr. Etheridge."
+
+"Tell her you had other errands. Go to the stores--the neighbors. She
+need never know you delivered this last."
+
+"But if you take it I won't know what is in it, and I want to read it
+myself."
+
+"I will tell you everything she writes. My memory is good, and you shall
+not miss a word."
+
+"But--but----"
+
+"It is your only chance," he insinuated; "the young ladies will never
+tell you themselves."
+
+"I know it; yet it seems a mean thing to do. Can you close the letter so
+that neither he nor they will ever know it has been opened?"
+
+"Trust me," he leered.
+
+"Hurry then; I will be in front of Dr. Sellick's in an hour. Give me the
+letter as you go by, and when I have delivered it, meet me on my way
+back and tell me what she says."
+
+He promised, and hastened with his treasure to the room he still kept
+at the hotel. She watched him as long as he was in sight and then went
+about her own improvised errands. Did she realize that she had just put
+in jeopardy not only her young mistresses' fortunes, but even their
+lives?
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+A DISCOVERY.
+
+
+Frank Etheridge waited a long time that night for the promised
+communication. Darkness came, but no letter; eight o'clock struck, and
+still there was no sign of the dilatory Doris. Naturally impatient, he
+soon found this lengthy waiting intolerable. Edgar was busy in his
+office, or he would have talked to him. The evening paper which he had
+brought from New York had been read long ago, and as for his cigar, it
+lacked flavor and all power to soothe him. In his exasperation he went
+to the book-shelves, and began looking over the numberless volumes
+ranged in neat rows before him. He took out one, glanced at it, and put
+it back; he took out another, without even seeing what its title was,
+looked at it a moment, sighed, and put that back; he took out a third,
+which opened in his hand at the title-page, saw that it was one of those
+old-fashioned volumes, designated _The Keepsake_, and was about to close
+and replace it as he had done the others, when his attention was
+suddenly and forcibly attracted by a name written in fine and delicate
+characters on the margin at the top. It was no other than this:
+
+       HARRIET SMITH
+    Gift of her husband
+      October 3rd 1848
+
+_Harriet Smith!_ Astounded, almost aghast, he ran to Edgar's office with
+the volume.
+
+"Edgar! Edgar!" he cried; "look here! See that name! And the book was in
+your library too. What does it mean? Who was, who is Harriet Smith, that
+you should have her book?"
+
+Dr. Sellick, taken by surprise, stared at the book a minute, then jumped
+to his feet in almost as much excitement as Frank himself.
+
+"I got that book from Hermione Cavanagh years ago; there was a poem in
+it she wanted me to read. I did not know I had the book now. I have
+never even thought of it from that day to this. Harriet Smith! Yes, that
+is the name you want, and they must be able to tell you to whom it
+belongs."
+
+"I believe it; I know it; I remember now that they have always shown an
+interest in the matter. Hermione wanted to read the will, and--Edgar,
+Edgar, can they be the heirs for whom we are searching, and is that why
+Huckins haunts the house and is received by them in plain defiance of my
+entreaties?"
+
+"If they are the heirs they would have been likely to have told you.
+Penniless young girls are not usually backward in claiming property
+which is their due."
+
+"That is certainly true, but this property has been left under a
+condition. I recollect now how disappointed Hermione looked when she
+read the will. Give me the book; I must see her sister or herself at
+once about it." And without heeding the demurs of his more cautious
+friend, Frank plunged from the house and made his way immediately to the
+Cavanagh mansion.
+
+His hasty knock brought Emma to the door. As he encountered her look and
+beheld the sudden and strong agitation under which she labored, he
+realized for the first time that he was returning to the house before
+reading the letter upon which so much depended.
+
+But he was so filled with his new discovery that he gave that idea but a
+thought.
+
+"Miss Cavanagh--Emma," he entreated, "grant me a moment's conversation.
+I have just found this book in Dr. Sellick's library--a book which he
+declares was once given him by your sister--and in it----"
+
+They had entered the parlor by this time and were standing by a table
+upon which burned a lamp----"is a name."
+
+She started, and was bending to look at the words upon which his finger
+rested, when the door opened. Hermione, alarmed and not knowing what to
+think of this unexpected return of her lover so soon, as she supposed,
+after the receipt of her letter, had come down from her room in that
+mood of extreme tension which is induced by an almost unendurable
+suspense.
+
+Frank, who in all his experience of her had never seen her look as she
+did at this moment, fell back from the place where he stood and hastily
+shook his head.
+
+"Don't look like that," he cried, "or you will make me feel I can never
+read your letter."
+
+"And have you not read it?" she demanded, shrinking in her turn till she
+stood on the threshold by which she had entered. "Why then are you here?
+What could have brought you back so soon when you knew----"
+
+"This," he interpolated hastily, holding up the book which he had let
+fall on the table at her entrance. "See! the name of Harriett Smith is
+written in it. Tell me, I pray, why you kept from me so persistently the
+fact that you knew the person to whom the property I hold in trust
+rightfully belongs."
+
+The two girls with a quick glance at each other drooped their heads.
+
+"What was the use?" murmured Emma, "since Harriet Smith is dead and her
+heirs can never claim the property. _We_ are her heirs, Mr. Etheridge;
+Harriet Smith was our mother, married to father thirty-nine years ago
+after a widowhood of only three months. It was never known in this place
+that she had had a former husband or had borne the name of Smith. There
+was so much scandal and unhappiness connected with her first most
+miserable marriage, that she suppressed the facts concerning it as much
+as possible. She was father's wife and that was all that the people
+about here knew."
+
+"I see," said Frank, wondering greatly at this romance in real life.
+
+"But you might have told me," he exclaimed. "When you saw what worriment
+this case was causing me, you might have informed me that I was
+expending my efforts in vain."
+
+"I wished to do so," answered Emma, "but Hermione dreaded the arguments
+and entreaties which would follow."
+
+"I could not bear the thought of them," exclaimed the girl from the
+doorway where she stood, "any more than I can bear the thought now when
+a matter of much more importance to me demands your attention."
+
+"I will go," cried Frank. But it was to the empty doorway he spoke;
+Hermione had vanished with these passionate words.
+
+"She is nearly ill," explained Emma, following him as he made for the
+door. "You must excuse one who has borne so much."
+
+"I do not excuse her," he cried, "I love her." And the look he cast up
+the stairs fully verified this declaration. "That is why I go with half
+on my lips unsaid. To-morrow we will broach the topic again, meanwhile
+beware of Huckins. He means you no good by being here. Had I known his
+connection with you, he should never have entered these doors."
+
+"He is our uncle; our mother's brother."
+
+"He is a scamp who means to have the property which is rightfully your
+due."
+
+"And he will have it, I suppose," she returned. "Hermione has never
+given me a hope that she means to contend with him in this matter."
+
+"Hermione has had no counsellor but her own will. To-morrow she will
+have to do with me. But shut the door on Huckins; promise me you will
+not see him again till after you have seen me."
+
+"I cannot--I know too little what is in that letter."
+
+"Oh, that letter!" he cried, and was gone from the house.
+
+When he arrived at Dr. Sellick's again, he found Doris awaiting him,
+looking very flushed and anxious. She had a shawl drawn around her, and
+she held some bundles under that shawl.
+
+"I hope," she said, "that you did not get impatient, waiting for me. I
+had some errands to do, and while doing them I lost the letter you
+expected and had to go back and look for it. I found it lying under the
+counter in Mr. Davis' store and that is why it is so soiled, but the
+inside is all right, and I can only beg your pardon for the delay."
+
+Drawing the packet from under her shawl, she handed it to the frowning
+lawyer, her heart standing still as she saw him turn it over and over in
+his hand. But his looks if angry were not suspicious, and with a
+relieved nod she was turning to go when he observed:
+
+"I have one word to say to you, Doris. You have told me that you have
+the welfare of the young ladies you serve at heart. Prove this to be so.
+If Mr. Huckins comes to the door to-night, or in the early morning, say
+that Miss Cavanagh is not well and that he had better go to the hotel.
+Do not admit him; _do not even open the door_, unless Miss Cavanagh or
+her sister especially command you to do so. He is not a safe friend for
+them, and I will take the responsibility of whatever you do."
+
+Doris, with wide-stretched eyes and panting breath, paused to collect
+her faculties. A week ago she would have received this intimation
+regarding anybody Mr. Etheridge might choose to mention, with gratitude
+and a certain sense of increased importance. But ambition and the sense
+of being on intimate and secret terms with a man and bachelor who
+boasted of his thousands, had made a change in her weak and cunning
+heart, and she was disposed to doubt the lawyer's judgment of what was
+good for the young ladies and wise for her.
+
+But she did not show her doubt to one whom she had secretly wronged so
+lately; on the contrary she bowed with seeming acquiescence, and saying,
+"Leave me alone to take good care of my young ladies," drew her shawl
+more closely about her and quietly slid from the house.
+
+A man was standing in the shadow of a great elm on the corner.
+
+As she passed, he whispered: "Don't stop, and don't expect to see me
+to-night. There is some one watching me, I am sure. To-morrow, if I can
+I will come."
+
+She had done a wicked and dangerous thing, and she had not learned the
+secret.
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON.
+
+
+Frank, being left alone, sat down with the letter Doris had given him.
+These are the words he read:
+
+"DEAR MR. ETHERIDGE:
+
+"I must ask you to walk by my house as early as nine o'clock to-morrow
+morning. If, having read this letter, you still feel ready to meet fate
+at my side, you will enter and tell me so. But if the horror that has
+rested upon my life falls with this reading upon yours, then pass by on
+the other side, and I will understand your verdict and accept it.
+
+"It was at a very early age that I first felt the blight which had
+fallen upon my life with the scar which disfigures one side of my face.
+Such expressions as 'Poor dear! what a pity!'--'She would be very
+beautiful if it were not for that,' make a deep impression upon a
+child's mind, especially if that child has a proud and sensitive nature,
+eager for admiration and shrinking from pity. Emma, who is only a year
+younger than myself, seemed to me quite an enviable being before I knew
+what the word envy meant, or why I felt so hot and angry when the
+neighbors took her up and caressed her, while they only cast looks of
+compassion at me. I hated her and did not know it; I hated the
+neighbors, and I hated the places where they met, and the home where I
+was born. I only loved my mother; perhaps, because she alone never spoke
+of my misfortune, and when she kissed me did not take pains to choose
+that side of my face which was without blemish. O my mother! if she had
+lived! But when I was just fifteen, and was feeling even more keenly
+than ever what it was to have just missed being the beauty of the town,
+she died, and I found myself left with only a stern and cruelly
+abstracted father for guardian, and for companion a sister, who in those
+days was a girl so merry by nature, and so full of play and sport, that
+she was a constant source of vexation to me, who hated mirth, and felt
+aggrieved by a cheerfulness I could not share. These passions of
+jealousy and pride did not lessen with me as I slowly ripened into
+womanhood. All our family have been victims of their own indomitable
+will, and even Emma, gentle as you see her to be now, used to have
+violent gusts of temper when she was crossed in her plans or pleasures.
+I never flashed out into bitter speech as she did, or made a noise when
+I was angry, but I had that slow fire within me which made me perfectly
+inexorable when I had once made up my mind to any course--no one, not
+even my father or my sister, having the least influence over me. And so
+it was that those who knew me began to dread me, even while they were
+forced to acknowledge that I possessed certain merits of heart and
+understanding. For the disappointment which had soured my disposition
+had turned me towards study for relief, and the determination to be
+brilliant, if I could not be beautiful, came with my maturity, and saved
+me, perhaps, from being nothing but a burden to my family and friends.
+
+"It was Mr. Lothrop, the Episcopalian minister, who first gave me this
+turn toward serious pursuits. He was a good man, who had known my
+mother, and after her death he used to come to the house, and finding me
+moping in a corner, while Emma made the room gay with her talk, he would
+draw me out with wonderful stories of women who had become the centre of
+a great society by the brilliance of their attainments and the sparkle
+of their wit. Once he called me beautiful, and when he saw the deep
+flush, which I could not subdue, mantle my cheeks and agitate my whole
+body, he took me very kindly by the hand, and said:
+
+"'Hermione, you have splendid powers. Perhaps God allowed a little
+defect to fall upon your beauty, in order to teach you the value of the
+superior faculties with which you are endowed. You can be a fine, grand
+woman, if you will.'
+
+"Alas! he did not know that one unconscious tribute to my personal
+attractions would just then have gone much farther with me than any
+amount of appreciation for my mental abilities. Yet his words had their
+effect, and from that moment I began to study--not as my father did,
+with an absorbed, passionate devotion to one line of thought; that
+seemed to me narrow and demoralizing, perhaps because almost every
+disappointment or grief incident to those days could be traced to my
+father's abstraction to everything disconnected with his laboratory. If
+I wished to go to the city, or extend my knowledge of the world by
+travel, it was: 'I have an experiment on hand; I cannot leave the
+laboratory.' If I wished a new gown, or a set of books, it was: 'I am
+not rich, and I must use all my spare means in buying the apparatus I
+need, or the chemicals which are necessary to the discoveries I am in
+the way of making.' Yet none of those discoveries or experiments ever
+resulted in anything further than the acquiring on his part of a purely
+local fame for learning. Therefore no special branch for me, but a
+general culture which would fit me to shine in any society it might
+henceforth be my good fortune to enter.
+
+"My father might brood over his books, and bend his back over the retort
+and crucible; my sister might laugh and attract the liking of a crowd of
+foolish heads, but I would be the Sevigny, the Rambouillet of my time,
+and by the eloquence of my conversation and the grace of my manner win
+for myself that superiority among women which nature had designed for
+me, but of which cruel fate had robbed me, even before I knew its worth.
+
+"You will say these are great hopes for a village girl who had never
+travelled beyond her native town, and who knew the great world only
+through the medium of books. But is it not in villages and quiet
+sequestered places that lofty ambitions are born? Is it the city boy who
+becomes the President of our United States, or the city girl who
+startles the world with her talent as poet, artist, or novelist?
+
+"I read, and learned the world, and felt that I knew my place in it.
+When my training should be complete, when I had acquired all that my
+books and the companionship of the best minds in Marston could teach,
+then I would go abroad, and in the civilization of other lands complete
+the education which had now become with me a passion, because in it I
+saw the stepping-stone to the eminence I sought.
+
+"I speak plainly; it is necessary. You must know what was passing in my
+mind during my girlhood's years, or you will not understand me or the
+temptations which befell me. Besides, in writing thus I am preparing
+myself for the revelation of a weakness I have shrunk till now from
+acknowledging. It must be made. I cannot put it off any longer. I must
+speak of Dr. Sellick, and explain if possible what he gradually became
+to me in those lonely and studious years.
+
+"I had known him from a child, but I did not begin to think of him till
+he began to visit our house. He was a student then, and he naturally
+took a great interest in chemistry. My father's laboratory was
+convenient, well-stocked with apparatus, and freely opened to him. To my
+father's laboratory he accordingly came every day when he was in town,
+till it began to be quite a matter of course to see him there.
+
+"I was very busy that summer, and for some time looked upon this only as
+a habit on his part, and so took little heed of his presence. But one
+day, being weary with the philosophy I had been studying, I took from
+the shelves a book of poems, and sitting down in the dimmest corner of
+our stiff old parlor, I began to read some impassioned verses, which,
+before I knew it, roused my imagination and inflamed my heart to a point
+which made it easy for any new romantic impression to be made upon me.
+
+"At this instant fate and my ever-cruel destiny brought into my
+presence Edgar Sellick. He had been like myself hard at work, and had
+become weary, and anxious perhaps for a change, or, as I am now
+compelled to think, eager to talk of one whose very existence I was
+tempted to forget when she was, as then, away from home. He had come
+into the room where I was, and was standing, flushed and handsome, in
+the one bright streak of sunlight that flashed at that moment over the
+floor. I had always liked him, and thought him the only real gentleman
+in town, but something quite new in my experience made my heart swell as
+I met his eyes that day, and though I will not call it love (not now),
+it was something which greatly moved me and made me feel that in the
+gaze and seeming interest of this man I saw the true road to happiness
+and to the only life which would ever really satisfy me. For, let it be
+my excuse, under all my vanity, a vanity greater for the seeming check
+it had received, dwelt an ardent and irrepressible desire for affection,
+such affection as I had never received since my dying mother laid her
+trembling hand upon my head and bade me trust the good God for a
+happiness I had never possessed. My disfigurement owed its deepest sting
+to the fact, never revealed to others before, and scarcely acknowledged
+to myself then, that it stood in the way, as I thought, to my ever being
+passionately beloved. When, therefore, I saw the smile on Dr. Sellick's
+face, and realized that he was looking for me, I rose up with new hopes
+in my heart and a new brightness in my life.
+
+"But we said nothing, he or I, beyond the merest commonplaces, and had
+my powers of observation been as keen then as they are now, since a new
+light has been shed upon those days, I would have perceived that his eye
+did not brighten when it rested upon me, save when some chance mention
+was made of Emma, and of the pleasures she was enjoying abroad. But no
+doubts came to me at that time. Because my heart was warm I took it for
+granted that his was so also, and not dreaming of any other reason for
+his attentions than the natural one of his desiring my society for its
+own sake, I gradually gave myself up to a feeling of which it is shame
+now for me to speak, but which, as it was the origin of all my troubles,
+I must compel myself to acknowledge here in all its force and fervor.
+
+"The fact that he never uttered a word of love or showed me any
+attention beyond that of being constantly at my side, did not serve to
+alarm or even dispirit me. I knew him to have just started upon his
+career as physician, and also knew him to be proud, and was quite
+content to cherish my hopes and look towards a future that had
+unaccountably brightened into something very brilliant indeed.
+
+"It was while matters were in this condition that Emma came home from
+her trip. I remember the occasion well, and how pretty she looked in her
+foreign gowns. You, who have only seen her under a shadow, cannot
+imagine how pleasing she was, fresh from her happy experiences abroad,
+and an ocean trip, which had emphasized the roses on her cheek and the
+brightness in her eyes. But though I saw it all and felt that I could
+never compete with the gaiety which was her charm, I did not feel that
+old sickly jealousy of her winsome ways which once distorted her figure
+in my eyes, nor did I any longer hate her laugh or shrink from her merry
+banter. For I had my own happiness, as I thought, and could afford to be
+lenient towards a gay young thing who had no secret hope like mine to
+fill her heart and make it too rich with joy for idle mirth.
+
+"It was a gay season for humble little Marston, and various picnics
+followed by a ball in Hartford promised festivities enough to keep us
+well alive. I did not care for festivities, but I did care for Dr.
+Sellick, and picnics and balls offered opportunities beyond those given
+by his rather commonplace visits to the house. I therefore looked
+forward to the picnics at the seashore with something like expectancy,
+and as proof of my utter blindness to the real state of affairs, it
+never even entered into my head that it would be the scene of his first
+meeting with Emma after an absence of many months.
+
+"Nor did any behavior on his part at this picnic enlighten me as to his
+true feelings, or the direction in which they ran. He greeted Emma in my
+presence, and the unusual awkwardness with which he took her hand told
+me nothing, though it may have whispered something to her. I only
+noticed that he had the most refined features and the most intellectual
+head of any one present, and was very happy thereat, and disposed to
+accord him an interview if he showed any inclination to draw me away
+from the rest of the merry-makers. But he did not, though he strolled
+several times away by himself; and once I saw him chatting with Emma;
+but this fact made no impression upon me and my Fool's Paradise remained
+still intact.
+
+"But that night on reaching home I felt that something was going wrong.
+Aunt Lovell was then with us, and I saw her cast a glance of dismay upon
+me as I entered the room where she and Emma had been closeted together.
+Emma, too, looked out of sorts, and hardly spoke to me when I passed her
+in the hall. Indeed, that quick temper of which I have already spoken
+was visible in her eyes, and if I had opened my own lips I am sure she
+would have flashed out with some of her bitter speeches. But I was
+ignorant of having given her any cause for anger; so, thinking she was
+jealous of the acquirements which I had made in her absence, and the
+advantages they now gave me in any gathering where cultured people came
+together, I hurried by her in some disdain, and in the quiet of my own
+room regained the equanimity my aunt's look and Emma's manifest
+ill-feeling towards me had for a moment shaken.
+
+"It was the last time I was to encounter anger in that eye. When I met
+her next morning I discovered that some great change had passed over
+her. The high spirits I had always secretly deprecated were gone, and in
+their place behold an indescribable gentleness of manner which has never
+since forsaken her.
+
+"But this was not all; her attitude towards me was different. From
+indifference it had budded into love; and if one can become devoted in a
+night, then was it devotion that she showed in every look and every word
+she bestowed upon me from that day. The occasion for this change I did
+not then know; when I did, a change passed over me also.
+
+"Meantime a grave event took place. I was out walking, and my path took
+me by the church. I mean the one that stands by itself on the top of the
+hill. Perhaps you have been there, perhaps you have not. It is a
+lonesome-looking structure, but it has pleasant surroundings, while the
+view of the sea which you get from its rear is superb. I often used to
+go there, just for the breath of salt-water that seemed to hover about
+the place, and as there was a big flat stone in the very spot most
+favorable for observation, I was accustomed to sit there for hours with
+my book or pencil for company.
+
+"Had Edgar Sellick loved me he would have been acquainted with my
+habits. This is apparent to me now, but then I seemed to see nothing
+beyond my own wishes and hopes. But this does not explain what happened
+to me there. I was sitting on the stone of which I have spoken, and was
+looking at the long line of silver light on the horizon which we call
+the sea, when I suddenly heard voices. Two men were standing on the
+other side of the church, engaged, in all probability, in gazing at the
+landscape, but talking on a subject very remote from what they saw
+before them. I heard their words distinctly. They were these:
+
+"'I tell you she is beautiful.'
+
+"I did not recognize the voice making use of this phrase, but the one
+that answered was well known to me, and its tones went through me like a
+knife.
+
+"'Oh, yes, if you only see one side of her face.'
+
+"They were speaking of me, and the last voice, careless, indifferent,
+almost disdainful as it was, was that of Edgar Sellick.
+
+"I quailed as at a mortal blow, but I did not utter a sound. I do not
+know as I even moved; but that only shows the control a woman
+unconsciously holds over herself. For nothing short of a frenzied scream
+could have voiced the agony I felt, or expressed the sudden revolt which
+took place within me, sickening me at once with life, past, present, and
+future. Not till they had strolled away did I rise and dash down the
+hill into the wood that lies at its foot, but when I felt myself alone
+and well shielded from the view of any chance observer, I groaned again
+and again, and wrung my hands in a misery to which I can do but little
+justice now. I had been thrust so suddenly out of paradise. I had been
+so sure of _his_ regard, _his_ love. The scar which disfigured me in
+other eyes had been, as I thought, no detriment in his. He loved me, and
+saw nothing in me but what was consistent with that love. And now I
+heard him with my own ears speak contemptuously of that scar. All that I
+had hoped, all that I had confided in, was gone from me in an instant,
+and I felt myself toppling into a misery I could neither contemplate nor
+fathom. For an hour I walked the paths of that small wood, communing
+with myself; then I took my resolve. Life, which had brought me nothing
+but pain and humiliation, was not worth living. The hopes I had
+indulged, the love in which I had believed, had proved a mockery, and
+the shame which their destruction brought was worse than death, and so
+to be more shunned than death. I was determined to die.
+
+"The means were ready to my hand. Further on in that very wood I knew of
+a pool. It was a deep, dark, deadly place, as its name of Devil's
+Cauldron betokens, and in it I felt I could most fitly end the life that
+was dear to no one. I began to stray towards that place. As I went I
+thought of home, but with no feelings of longing or compunction. Emma
+might be kind, had been kind for the last day or so, but Emma did not
+love me, would not sacrifice anything for me, would not grieve, save in
+the decent way her sisterhood would naturally require. As for my father,
+he would feel the interruption it would cause in his experiments, but
+that would not last long, and in a few days he would be again in his
+beloved laboratory. No one, not a single being, unless it was dear Aunt
+Lovell, would sincerely mourn me or sigh over the death of the poor girl
+with a scar. Edgar Sellick might raise his eyebrows in some surprise,
+and Edgar Sellick should know what a careless word could do. I had a
+pencil and paper in my pocket, and I meant to use them. He should not go
+through life happy and careless, when a line from me would show him that
+the death of one who had some claims upon his goodness, lay at his door.
+
+"The sight of the dim, dark pool did not frighten me from these
+intentions. I was in that half-maddened state of disgust and shame which
+makes the promise of any relief look inviting and peaceful. I loved the
+depth of that cool, clear water. I saw in it rest, peace, oblivion. Had
+I not had that letter to write I would have tasted that rest and peace,
+and these words would never have come to your eyes. But the few minutes
+I took to write some bitter and incoherent lines to Dr. Sellick saved me
+from the doom I contemplated. Have I reason to be thankful it was so?
+To-morrow morning will tell me.
+
+"The passion which guided my pencil was still in my face when I laid the
+paper down on the bank and placed a stone above it. The eyes which saw
+those evidences of passion were doubtless terrified by them, for as I
+passed to the brink of the pool and leaned over it I felt a frenzied
+grasp on my arm, and turning, I met the look of Emma fixed upon me in
+mortal terror and apprehension.
+
+"'What are you going to do?' she cried. 'Why are you leaning over the
+Devil's Cauldron like that?'
+
+"I had not wished to see her or to say good-by to any one. But now, that
+by some unaccountable chance she had come upon me, in my desperation I
+would give her one kiss before I went to my doom.
+
+"'Emma,' I exclaimed, meeting her look without any sharp sense of shame,
+'life is not as promising for me as it is for you; life is not promising
+for me at all, so I seek to end it.'
+
+"The horror in her eyes deepened. The grasp on my arm became like that
+of a man.
+
+"'You are mad,' she cried. 'You do not know what you are doing. What
+has happened to drive you to a deed like this? I--I thought--' and here
+she stammered and lost for the moment her self-control--'that you seemed
+very happy last night.'
+
+"'I was,' I cried. 'I did not know then what a blighted creature I was.
+I thought some one might be brought to love me, even with this
+frightful, hideous scar on my face. But I know now that I am mistaken;
+that no man will ever overlook this; that I must live a lonely life, a
+suffering life; and I have not the strength or the courage to do so.
+I--I might have been beautiful,' I cried, 'but----'
+
+"Her face, suddenly distorted by the keenest pain, drew my attention,
+even at that moment of immeasurable woe, and made me stop and say in
+less harsh and embittered tones:
+
+"'No one will miss me very much, so do not seek to stop me.'
+
+"Her head fell forward, her eyes sought the ground, but she did not
+loosen her hold on my arm. Instead of that, it tightened till it felt
+like a band of steel.
+
+"'You have left a letter there,' she murmured, allowing her eyes to
+wander fearfully towards it. 'Was it to me? to our father?'
+
+"'No,' I returned.
+
+"She shuddered, but her eyes did not leave the spot. Suddenly her lips
+gave a low cry; she had seen the word _Sellick_.
+
+"'Yes,' I answered in response to what I knew were her thoughts. 'It is
+that traitor who is killing me. He has visited me day by day, he has
+followed me from place to place; he has sought me, smiled upon me, given
+me every token of love save that expressed in words; and now, now I hear
+him, when he does not know I am near, speak disrespectfully of my looks,
+of this scar, as no man who loves, or ever will love, could speak of any
+defect in the woman he has courted.'
+
+"'You did not hear aright,' came passionately from her lips. 'You are
+mistaken. Dr. Sellick could not so far forget himself.'
+
+"'Dr. Sellick can and did. Dr. Sellick has given me a blow for which his
+fine art of healing can find no remedy. Kiss me, Emma, kiss me, dear
+girl, and do not hold me so tight; see, we might tumble into the water
+together.'
+
+"'And if we did,' she gasped, 'it would be better than letting you go
+alone. No, no, Hermione, you shall never plunge into that pool while I
+live to hold you back. Listen to me, listen. Am I nothing to you? Will
+you not live for me? I have been careless, I know, happy in my own hopes
+and pleasures, and thinking too little, oh, much too little, of the
+possible griefs or disappointments of my only sister. But this shall be
+changed; I promise you shall all be changed. I will live for you
+henceforth; we will breathe, work, suffer, enjoy together. No sister
+shall be tenderer, no lover more devoted than I will be to you. If you
+do not marry, then will not I. No pleasure that is denied you shall be
+accepted by me. Only come away from this dark pool; quit casting those
+glances of secret longing into that gruesome water. It is too awful, too
+loathsome a place to swallow so much beauty; for you are beautiful, no
+matter what any one says; so beautiful that it is almost a mercy you
+have some defect, or we should not dare to claim you for our own, you
+are so far above what any of us could hope for or expect.'
+
+"But the bitterness that was in my soul could not be so easily
+exorcised.
+
+"'You are a good girl,' I said, 'but you cannot move me from my
+purpose.' And I tried to disengage myself from her clasp.
+
+"But the young face, the young form which I had hitherto associated only
+with what was gay, mirthful, and frivolous, met me with an aspect which
+impressed even me and made me feel it was no child I had to deal with
+but a woman as strong and in a state of almost as much suffering as
+myself.
+
+"'Hermione,' she cried, 'if you throw yourself into that pool, I shall
+follow you. I will not live ten minutes after you. Do you know why?
+Because I--_I_ caused you that scar which has been the torment of your
+life. It was when we were children--babes, and I have only known it
+since last night. Auntie Lovell told me, in her sympathy for you and her
+desire to make me more sisterly. The knowledge has crushed me, Hermione;
+it has made me hate myself and love you. Nothing I can do now can ever
+atone for what I did then; though I was so young, it was anger that gave
+me strength to deal the blow which has left this indelible mark behind
+it. Isn't it terrible? I the one to blame and you the one to
+suffer!--But there must be no dying, Hermione, no dying, or I shall feel
+myself a murderess. And you do not want to add that horror to my
+remorse, now that I am old enough to feel remorse, and realize your
+suffering. You will be a little merciful and live for my sake if not for
+your own.'
+
+"She was clinging to me, her face white and drawn, upturned towards mine
+with pitiful pleading, but I had no words with which to comfort her, nor
+could I feel as yet any relenting in my fixed purpose. Seeing my unmoved
+look she burst into sobs, then she cried suddenly:
+
+"'I see I must prepare to die too. But not to-day, Hermione. Wait a
+month, just one month, and then if you choose to rush upon your fate, I
+will not seek to deter you, I will simply share it; but not to-day, not
+in this rush of maddened feeling. Life holds too much,--may yet give you
+too much, for any such reckless disregard of its prospects. Give it one
+chance, then, and me one chance--it is all I ask. One month of quiet
+waiting and then--decision.'
+
+"I knew no month would make any difference with me, but her passionate
+pleading began to work upon my feelings.
+
+"'It will be a wretched time for me,' said I, 'a purgatory which I shall
+be glad to escape.'
+
+"'But for my sake,' she murmured, 'for my sake; I am not ready to die
+yet, and your fate--I have said it--shall be mine.'
+
+"'For your sake then,' I cried, and drew back from the dangerous brink
+upon which we had both been standing. 'But do not think,' I added, as we
+paused some few feet away, 'that because I yield now, I will yield then.
+If after a month of trying to live, I find myself unable, I shall not
+consult you, Emma, as to my determination, any more than I shall expect
+you to embrace my doom because in the heat of your present terror you
+have expressed your intention of doing so.'
+
+"'Your fate shall be my fate, as far as I myself can compass it,' she
+reiterated. And I, angry at what I thought to be an unwarrantable
+attempt to put a check upon me, cried out in as bitter a tone as I had
+ever used:
+
+"'So be it,' and turned myself towards home."
+
+
+
+
+XXI.
+
+IN THE LABORATORY.
+
+
+"But Emma, with a careful remembrance of what was due to my better
+nature, stopped to pick up the letter I had left lying under a stone,
+and joining me, placed it in my hand, by which it was soon crumpled up,
+torn, and scattered to the wind. As the last bits blew by us, we both
+sighed and the next minute walked rapidly towards home.
+
+"You will say that all this was experience enough for one day, but fate
+sometimes crowds us with emotions and eventful moments. As we entered
+the house, I saw auntie waiting for us at the top of the first stairs;
+and when she beckoned to Emma only, I was glad--if I could be glad of
+anything--that I was to be left for a few minutes to myself. Turning
+towards a little crooked staircase which leads to that part of the house
+containing my own room and my father's laboratory, I went wearily up,
+feeling as if each step I took dragged a whole weight of woe behind it.
+
+"I was going to my own room, but as I passed the open laboratory door,
+I perceived that the place was empty, and the fancy took me, I know not
+why, to go in. I had never liked the room, it was so unnaturally long,
+so unnaturally dismal, and so connected with the pursuits I had come to
+detest. Now it had an added horror for me. Here Dr. Sellick had been
+accustomed to come, and here was the very chair in which he had sat, and
+the table at which he had worked. Why, then, with all this old and new
+shrinking upon me did I persistently cross the threshold and darken my
+already clouded spirit with the torturing suggestions I found there? I
+do not know. Perhaps my evil spirit lured me on; perhaps--I am beginning
+to believe in a Providence now--God had some good purpose in leading me
+to fresh revelations, though up to this time they have seemed to cause
+me nothing but agony and shame.
+
+"No one was in the room, I say, and I went straight to its middle
+window. Here my father's desk stood, for he used the room for nearly
+every purpose of his life. I did not observe the desk; I did not observe
+anything till I turned to leave; then I caught sight of a letter lying
+on the desk, and stopped as if I had been clutched by an iron hand, for
+it was an open letter, and the signature at the bottom of the sheet was
+that of Edgar Sellick.
+
+"'Can I never escape from that man?' thought I, and turned passionately
+away. But next minute I found myself bending over it, devouring it first
+with my eyes, and then taking it to my heart, for it was an expression
+of love for the daughter of the man to whom it was addressed, and that
+man was my father.
+
+"This language as I now know referred to Emma, and she was under no
+error in regard to it, nor was my father nor my aunt. But I thought it
+referred to me, and as I read on and came upon the sentence in which he
+asked, as I supposed, for my hand and the privilege of offering himself
+to me at the coming ball, I experienced such a revulsion of feeling that
+I lost all memory of the words I had overheard him speak, or attributed
+them to some misunderstanding on my part, which a word or look from him
+could easily explain.
+
+"Life bloomed for me again, and I was happy, madly happy for a few short
+moments. Even the horrible old room I was in seemed cheerful, and I was
+just acknowledging to myself that I should have made a great mistake if
+I had carried out my wicked impulse toward self-destruction, when my
+father came in. He shrank back when he saw me; but I thought nothing of
+that; I did not even wonder why Emma was closeted with aunt. I only
+thought of the coming ball, and the necessity of preparing myself for it
+right royally.
+
+"I had come from the desk, and was crossing the floor to go out. My
+happiness made me turn.
+
+"'Father,' said I, taking what I thought to be an arch advantage of the
+situation; 'may I not have a new dress for the ball?'
+
+"He paused, cast a glance at his desk, and then another at me. He had
+been, though I did not know it, in conversation with Emma and my aunt,
+and was more alive to the matters of the hour than usual. It was
+therefore with some display of severity that he confronted me and said:
+
+"'You are not going to the ball, Hermione.'
+
+"Struck as by a blow, the more severely that it was wholly unexpected, I
+gasped:
+
+"'Not going to the ball when you know what depends upon it? Do you not
+like Dr. Sellick, father?'
+
+"He mumbled something between his lips, and advancing to the desk, took
+up the letter which he thus knew I had read, and ostentatiously folded
+it.
+
+"'I like Dr. Sellick well enough,' was his reply, 'but I do not approve
+of balls, and desire you to keep away from them.'
+
+"'But you said we might go,' I persisted, suspecting nothing, seeing
+nothing in this but a parent's unreasonable and arbitrary display of
+power. 'Why have you changed your mind? Is it because Dr. Sellick has
+fixed upon that time for making me the offer of his hand?'
+
+"'Perhaps,' his dry lips said.
+
+"Angry as I had never been in all my life, I tried to speak, and could
+not. Had I escaped suicide to have my hopes flung in this wanton way
+again to the ground, and for no reason that I or any one else could
+see?'
+
+"'But you acknowledge,' I managed at last to stammer, 'that you like
+him.'
+
+"'That is not saying I want him for a son-in-law.'
+
+"'Whom do you want?' I cried. 'Is there any one else in town superior to
+him in wit or breeding? If he loves me----'
+
+"My father's lip curled.
+
+"'He says he does,' I flashed out fiercely.
+
+"'You should not have read my letters,' was all my father replied.
+
+"I was baffled, exasperated, at my wits' end; all the more that I saw
+his eye roaming impatiently towards the pneumatic trough where some
+hydrogen gas was collecting for use.
+
+"'Father, father,' I cried, 'be frank to me. What are your objections to
+Dr. Sellick? He is your friend; he works with you; he is promising in
+his profession; he has every qualification but that of wealth----'
+
+"'That is enough,' broke in my father.
+
+"I looked at him in dismay and shrank back. How could I know he was
+honestly trying to save me from a grief and shame they all thought me
+unequal to meeting. I saw nothing but his cold smile, heard nothing but
+his harsh words.
+
+"'You are cruel; you are heartless,' burst from me in a rage. 'You never
+have shown the least signs of a mercenary spirit before, and now you
+make Dr. Sellick's lack of money an excuse for breaking my heart.'
+
+"'Hermione,' my father slowly rejoined, 'you have a frightful temper.
+You had better keep down the exhibitions of it when you are in this
+room.'
+
+"'This room!' I repeated, almost beside myself. 'This grave rather of
+every gentle feeling and tender thought which a father should have
+towards a most unfortunate child. If you loved me but half as well as
+you love these old jars----'
+
+"But here his face, usually mild in its abstraction, turned so pale and
+hard that I was frightened at what I had said.
+
+"'Hermione,' he cried, 'there is no use trying to show you any
+consideration. Know the truth then; know that----'
+
+"Why did he not go on? Why was he not allowed to tell me what I may have
+been but little fitted to hear, but which if I had heard it at that time
+would have saved me from many grave and fatal mistakes. I think he would
+have spoken; I think he meant to tell me that Dr. Sellick's offer was
+for Emma, and not for me, but Emma herself appeared just then at the
+door, and though I did not detect the gesture she made, I gather that it
+was one of entreaty from the way he paused and bit his lip.
+
+"'It is useless to talk,' he exclaimed. 'I have said that you are to
+stay home from the ball. I also say that you are not to accept or refuse
+Dr. Sellick's addresses. I will answer his letter, and it will not be
+one of acceptance.'
+
+"Why did I not yield to his will and say nothing? When I saw how
+everything was against me, why did I not succumb to circumstances, and
+cease to maintain a struggle I knew then to be useless? Because it was
+not in my nature to do so; because Providence had given me an
+indomitable will which had never been roused into its utmost action till
+now. Drawing myself up till I felt that I was taller than he, I advanced
+with all the fury of suppressed rage, and quietly said the fatal words
+which, once uttered, I never knew how to recall:
+
+"'If you play the tyrant, I will not play the part of submissive slave.
+Keep me here if you will; restrain me from going where my fancy and my
+desires lead, and I will obey you. But, father, if you do this, if you
+do not allow me to go to the ball, meet Dr. Sellick, and accept his
+offer, then mark me, I will never go out of this house again. Where you
+keep me I will stay till I am carried out a corpse, and no one and
+nothing shall ever make me change my mind.'
+
+"He stared, laughed, then walked away to his pneumatic trough. 'Suit
+yourself about that,' said he, 'I have nothing to do with your whims.'
+Probably he thought I was raving and would forget my words before the
+day was out.
+
+"But there was another person present who knew me better, and I only
+realized what I had done when I beheld Emma's slight body lying
+insensible at my feet."
+
+
+
+
+XXII.
+
+STEEL MEETS STEEL.
+
+
+Up to this point Frank had read with an absorption which precluded the
+receiving of all outward impressions. But the secret reached, he drew a
+long breath and became suddenly conscious of a lugubrious sound breaking
+in upon the silence with a gloomy iteration which was anything but
+cheering.
+
+The fog-horn was blowing out on Dog Island.
+
+"I could have done without that accompaniment," thought he, glancing at
+the sheets still before him. "It gives me a sense of doom."
+
+But the fog was thick on the coast and the horn kept on blowing.
+
+Frank took up the remaining sheets.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Life for me was now at an end indeed, and not for me only, but for
+Emma. I had not meant to involve her in my fate. I had forgotten her
+promise, _forgotten_. But when I saw her lying there I remembered, and a
+sharp pang pierced me for all my devouring rage. But I did not recall my
+words, I could not. I had uttered them with a full sense of what they
+meant to me, and the scorn with which they were received only deepened
+my purpose to keep the threat I had made. Can you understand such a
+disposition, and can you continue to love the possessor of it?
+
+"My father, who was shocked at Emma's fall, knowing better than I did
+perhaps the real misery which lay behind it, cast me a look which did
+not tend to soften my obduracy, and advanced to pick her up. When he had
+carried her to her own room, I went proudly to mine, and such was the
+depth of my anger and the obstinate nature of my will that I really felt
+better able to face the future now that I had put myself into a position
+requiring pride and purpose to sustain it. But I did feel some relenting
+when I next saw Emma--such a change was visible in her manner. Meekness
+had taken the place of the merriment which once made the house to ring,
+and the eye which once sparkled now showed sadness and concern. I did
+not, however suspect she had given up anything but freedom, and though
+this was much, as I very soon began to find, I was not yet by any means
+so affected by her devotion, that I could do more than beg her to
+reconsider her own determination and break a promise from which I would
+be only too happy to release her.
+
+"But the answer with which she always met my remonstrances was, 'Your
+fate shall be my fate. When it becomes unbearable to us both you will
+release me by releasing yourself.' Which answer always hardened me
+again, for I did not wish to be forced to think that the breaking up of
+our seclusion rested with me, or that anything but a relenting on my
+father's part could make any change in my conduct.
+
+"Meanwhile that father maintained towards me an air of the utmost
+indifference. He worked at his experiments as usual, came and went
+through the sombre house, which was unrelieved now by Emma's once bright
+sallies and irrepressible laughter, and made no sign that he saw any
+difference in it or us. Aunt Lovell alone showed sympathy, and when she
+saw that sympathy accomplished nothing, tried first persuasion and then
+argument.
+
+"But she had iron and steel to deal with and she soon ceased her gentle
+efforts, and as the time of her visit was drawing to a close, returned
+again to those gentle expressions of silent sympathy more natural to her
+nature; and so the first week passed.
+
+"We had determined, Emma and I, that no one beside our four selves
+should ever know the secret of our strange behavior. Neighbors might
+guess, gossips might discuss it, but no one should ever know why we no
+longer showed ourselves in the street, went to any of the social
+gatherings of the place, or attended the church from which we had never
+before been absent. When, therefore, the ball came off and we were not
+seen there, many were the questions asked, and many were the surmises
+uttered, but we did not betray our secret, nor was it for some time
+after this that the people about us awoke to the fact that we no longer
+left our home.
+
+"What happened when this fact was fully realized, I will not pause to
+relate, for matters of a much more serious nature press upon me and I
+must now speak of the bitter and terrible struggle which gradually awoke
+between my father and myself. He had as I have already related, shown
+nothing at first but indifference, but after the first week had passed
+he suddenly seemed to realize that I meant what I said. The result was a
+conflict between us from the effects of which I am still suffering.
+
+"The first intimation I received of his determination to make me break
+my word came on a Sunday morning. He had been in his room dressing for
+church, and when he came out he rapped at my door and asked if I were
+ready to go with him.
+
+"Naturally I flung wide the door and let him see my wrathful figure in
+its morning dress.
+
+"'Can you ask,' I cried, 'when you yourself have made it impossible for
+me to enjoy anything outside of this house, even the breath of fresh air
+to which all are entitled?'
+
+"He looked as if he would like to strike me, but he did not--only
+smiled. If I could have known all that lay under that smile, or been
+able to fathom from what I knew of my own stubborn nature, the terrible
+depths which its sarcasm barely suggested!
+
+"'You would be a fool if you were not so wicked,' was all he said, and
+shuffled away to my sister's door.
+
+"In a few minutes he came back.
+
+"'Hermione,' he cried, 'put on your hat and come directly with me to
+church.'
+
+"I simply looked at him.
+
+"'Do you hear?' he exclaimed, stepping into the room and shutting the
+door after him. 'I have had enough of this nonsense, and to-day you go
+out with me to church or you never shall call me father again.'
+
+"'Have you been a father to me?' I asked.
+
+"He shook and quivered and was a picture of rage. I remembered as I
+looked at him, thinking, 'Behold the source of my own temper,' but I
+said nothing, and was in no other way affected by what I saw.
+
+"'I have been such a father to you as your folly and blindness
+deserved,' he exclaimed. 'Should I continue to treat you according to
+your deserts, I would tell you what would lay you in shame at my feet.
+But I have promised to be silent, and silent will I be, not out of
+consideration for you, but because your punishment will some day be the
+greater. Will you give up this whim and go with me, and so let your
+sister go also, or will you not?'
+
+"'I will not.'
+
+"He showed a sudden change of manner. 'I will ask you the same question
+next Sunday,' said he, and left my presence with his old air of
+indifference and absorption. No subject disconnected with his work could
+rouse more than a temporary passion in him.
+
+"He kept his word. Every Sunday morning he came on the same errand to
+my door, and every Sunday he went forth alone. During the week days he
+did not trouble me. Indeed, I do not know as he thought of me then, or
+even of Emma, who had always been dearer to him than I. He was engaged
+on some new experiment, some vital discovery that filled him with
+enthusiasm and made every moment passed out of his laboratory a trial
+and a loss to him. He ate that he might work, he slept that he might
+gather new strength and inspiration for the next day. If visitors came
+he refused to see them; the one visitor who could have assisted him at
+the retort and crucible had been denied the door, and any other was a
+hindrance. Our troubles, our cares, our schemes, or our attempts to
+supply the table and dress ourselves upon the few and fewer dollars he
+now allowed us, sank into insignificance before the one idea with which
+he was engrossed. I do not think he even knew when we ceased having meat
+for dinner. That Emma was growing pale and I desperate did not attract
+his attention as much as a speck of dust upon a favorite jar or a crack
+in one of his miserable tubes.
+
+"That this deep absorption of his was real and not assumed was made
+evident to me the first Sunday morning he forgot to come to my door. It
+was a relief not to have to go through the usual formula, but it alarmed
+me too. I was afraid I was to be allowed to go my own way unhindered,
+and I was beginning to feel a softness towards Emma and a longing for
+the life of the world, which made me anxious for some excuse to break a
+resolution which was entailing upon me so much more suffering than I had
+anticipated. Indeed, I think if my father had persisted in his practice
+and come but two or three Sunday mornings more to my door, that my pride
+would have yielded at last, and my feet in spite of me have followed him
+out of a house that, since it had become my prison, had become more than
+ever hateful to me. But he stopped just as a crisis was taking place in
+my feelings, and my heart hardened again. Before it could experience
+again the softening effects of Emma's uncomplaining presence the news
+came that Dr. Sellick had left the town, and my motive for quitting the
+house was taken from me. Henceforth I felt no more life or hope or
+ambition than if I had been an automaton.
+
+"This mood received one day a startling interruption. As I was sitting
+in my room with a book in my hand I felt too listless to read, the door
+opened, and my father stood before me. As it was weeks since he had
+appeared on a Sunday morning and months since he had showed himself
+there on a week day, I was startled, especially as his expression was
+more eager and impatient than I had ever seen it except when he was
+leaning over his laboratory table. Was his heart touched at last? Had he
+good news for me, or was he going to show his fatherhood once more by
+proffering me an invitation to go out with him in a way which my pride
+would allow me to accept? I rose in a state of trembling agitation, and
+made up my mind that if he spoke kindly I would break the hideous bonds
+which held me and follow him quickly into the street.
+
+"But the words which fell from his lips drove every tender impulse back
+into my heart.
+
+"'Have you any jewels, Hermione? I think I gave your mother some pearls
+when we were married. Have you them? I want them if you have.'
+
+"The revulsion of feeling was too keen. Quivering with disappointment, I
+cried out, bitterly:
+
+"'What to do? To give us bread? We have not had any too much of it
+lately.'
+
+"He stared, but did not seem to take in my words.
+
+"'Fetch the pearls,' he cried; 'I cannot afford to waste time like this;
+my experiments will suffer.'
+
+"'And have you no eye, no heart,' I asked, 'for the sufferings of your
+daughters? With no motive but an arbitrary love of power, you robbed me
+of my happiness. Now you want my jewels; the one treasure I have left
+either in the way of value, or as a remembrance of the mother who loved
+me.'
+
+"Of all this he heard but one word.
+
+"'Are they valuable?' he asked. 'I had hoped so, but I did not know. Get
+them, child, get them. The discovery upon which my fame may rest will
+yet be made.'
+
+"'Father, father, you want to sell them,' I screamed. 'My mother's
+jewels; my dead mother's jewels!'
+
+"He looked at me; this protest had succeeded in entering his ears, and
+his eye, which had been simply eager, became all at once dangerous.
+
+"'I do not care whose they were,' he hissed, 'so long as they are now
+mine. It is money I want, and money I will have, and if they will get it
+for me you had better be thankful. Otherwise I shall have to find some
+other way to raise it.'
+
+"I was cowed; he did not say what other way, but I knew by his look I
+had better not drive him into it, so I went to the place where I kept
+these sacred relics, and taking them out, laid them in his trembling,
+outstretched hand.
+
+"'Are these all?' he asked. And I wondered, for he had never shown the
+least shrewdness in any matter connected with money before.
+
+"'All but a trivial little locket which Emma wears,' said I.
+
+"'Is it worth much?'
+
+"'Scarcely five dollars,' I returned.
+
+"'Five dollars would buy the bit of platinum I want,' he muttered. But
+he did not ask for the locket, for I saw it on Emma's neck the next day.
+
+"This was the beginning of a fresh struggle. My father begrudged us
+everything: the food we ate; the plain, almost homely, clothes we wore.
+He himself wellnigh starved his own body, and when in the midst of an
+experiment, his most valuable retort broke in his hand, you could have
+heard his shriek of dismay all over the house. The following Sunday he
+did not go to church; he no longer had a coat to wear; he had sold his
+only broadcloth suit to a wandering pedlar.
+
+"Our next shock was the dismissal of the man who had always kept our
+garden in order. Doris would have been sent away also, but that father
+knew this would mean a disorder in the household which might entail
+interruption in his labors. He did not dare to leave himself to the
+tender mercies of his daughters. But her pay was stopped.
+
+"Meanwhile his discovery delayed. It was money that he needed, he said,
+more money, much more money. He began to sell his books. In the midst of
+this a stranger came to visit him, and now the real story of my misery
+begins."
+
+
+
+
+XXIII.
+
+A GROWING HORROR.
+
+
+"There are some men who fill you from the beginning with a feeling of
+revulsion. Such a one was Antony Harding. When he came into the parlor
+where I sat, I felt it difficult to advance and greet him with the
+necessary formalities, so forcibly did I shrink from his glance, his
+smile, his bow of easy assurance. Not that he was ugly of feature, or
+possessed of any very distinguishing marks in face or form to render him
+personally repulsive. He was what some might have called good-looking,
+and many others a gentlemanly-appearing man. But to me he was simply
+revolting, and I could not then or now tell why, for, as far as I know,
+he has never done anything incompatible with his standing as a gentleman
+and a man of family and wealth.
+
+"He had some claim upon my father, and desired very much to see him. I,
+who could not dispute that claim, was going to call my father, when Mr.
+Harding stopped me, thinking, I really believe, that he would not see me
+again, and I was forced, greatly against my will, to stand and answer
+some half-dozen innocent enough questions, while his eyes roamed over my
+features and took in the scar I turned towards him as a sort of defence.
+Then he let me go, but not before I saw in him the beginning of that
+fever which made me for a while hate the very name of love.
+
+"With a sense of disgust quite new to me, I rushed from the room to the
+laboratory. The name by which he had introduced himself was a strange
+one to me, and I had no idea my father would see him. But as soon as I
+uttered the word Harding, the impatience with which he always met any
+interruption gave way to a sudden and irresistible joy, and, jumping up
+from his seat, he cried:
+
+"'Show him up! show him up. He is a rich man and interested in
+chemistry. He cannot but foresee the fame which awaits the man who
+brings to light the discovery I am seeking.'
+
+"'He says he has some claim on you,' I murmured, anything but pleased at
+this prospect of seeing a man whose presence I so disliked, inveigled
+into matters which might demand his reappearance in the house.
+
+"'Claims? claims? Perhaps he has; I cannot remember. But send him up; I
+shall soon make him forget any claims he may have.'
+
+"I did as my father bade me. I sent the smiling, dapper, disagreeably
+attentive man to the laboratory, and when this was done, went to the
+window and threw it up with some vague idea of cleansing the room from
+an influence which stifled me.
+
+"You may imagine then with what a sense of apprehension I observed that
+my father fairly glowed with delight when he came to the supper-table.
+From being the half-sullen, half-oblivious companion who had lately
+chilled our board and made it the scene of anything but cheer or
+comfort, he had brightened at once into a garrulous old man, ready with
+jests and full of condescending speeches in regard to his great
+experiments. Emma, to whom I had said nothing, looked her innocent
+pleasure at this, and both of us started in amazement when he suddenly
+turned towards me, and surveyed me with something like interest and
+pleasurable curiosity.
+
+"'Why do you look at me like that?' I could not help saying. 'I should
+think you had never seen me before, father.'
+
+"'Perhaps I never have,' he laughed. Then quite seriously: 'I was
+looking to see if you were as handsome as Mr. Harding said you were. He
+told me he had never seen so beautiful a woman in his life.'
+
+"I was shocked; more than that, I was terrified; I half-rose from the
+table, and forgetting everything else which made my life a burden to me,
+I had some wild idea of rushing from the house, from the town, anywhere
+to escape the purpose I perceived forming itself in my father's mind.
+
+"'Father,' I cried, with a trembling in my tones that was not common to
+them, even in the moments of my greatest displeasure; 'I hate that man,
+and abominate the very idea of his presuming to admire me. Do not ever
+mention him to me again. It makes my very soul turn sick.'
+
+"It was an unwise speech; it was the unwisest speech I could have made.
+I felt this to be so the moment I had spoken, and stole a look of secret
+dismay at Emma, who sat quite still and helpless, gazing, in silent
+consternation, from my father to myself.
+
+"'You will hate no one who can help me perfect my experiments,' he
+retorted. 'If I command you to do so, you must even love him, though we
+have not got so far as that yet.'
+
+"'I will never love anybody again,' I answered bitterly. 'And I would
+not love this man if your discoveries and my own life even hung upon
+it.'
+
+"'You would not?' He was livid now. 'Well, we shall see. He is coming
+here to dinner to-morrow, and if you dare to show him anything but the
+respect due to an honored guest you will live to rue it as you have
+never rued anything yet.'
+
+"Threats that are idle on some lips are anything but idle on ours, as I
+think you have already begun to perceive. I therefore turned pale and
+said no more, but all night the tormenting terror was upon me, and when
+the next day came I was but little fitted to sustain the reputation for
+beauty which I had so unfortunately earned from a distasteful man's lips
+the day before.
+
+"But Antony Harding was not one to easily change his first impressions.
+He had made up his mind that I was beautiful, and he kept to that
+opinion to the last. I had dressed myself in my most expensive but least
+becoming gown, and I wore my hair in a way to shock the taste of most
+men. But I saw from the first moment that his eyes fell on my face that
+this made no difference to him, and that I must take other means to
+disillusionize him. So then I resorted to a display of stupidity. I did
+not talk, and looked, if I looked at all, as if I did not understand.
+But he had seen glimpses of brightness in me the day before, and this
+ruse succeeded no better than the other. He even acted as if he admired
+me more as a breathing, sullen image than as a living, combative woman.
+
+"My father, who watched us as he never had watched anything before but
+rising bubbles of gas or accumulating crystals, did not show the
+displeasure I feared, possibly because he saw that I was failing in all
+my endeavors; and when the meal over, he led the way to the parlor, he
+even smiled upon me in a not altogether unfriendly way. I felt a sinking
+of the heart when I saw that smile. Better to me were his frowns, for
+that smile told me that, love or no love, liking or no liking, I was to
+be made the bait to win this man's money for the uses of chemistry.
+
+"Walking steadfastly into the parlor, I met the stranger's admiring eye.
+
+"'You would not think,' I remarked, 'that my life at present was
+enclosed within these four walls.'
+
+"It was the first sentence I had voluntarily addressed him, and it must
+have struck him as a very peculiar one.
+
+"'I do not understand what you mean,' he returned, with that unctuous
+smile which to me was so detestable. 'Something interesting, I have no
+doubt.'
+
+"'Very interesting,' I dryly rejoined. 'I have taken a vow never to
+leave this house, and I mean to keep it.'
+
+"He stared at me now in some apprehension, and my heart gave a bound of
+delight. I had frightened him. He thought I was demented.
+
+"My father, seeing his look of astonishment, but not knowing what I had
+said, here advanced and unconsciously made matters worse by remarking,
+with an effort at jocularity:
+
+"'Don't mind what Hermione says; for a smart girl and a good one, she
+sometimes talks very peculiarly.'
+
+"'I should think so,' my companion's manner seemed to assert, but he
+gave a sudden laugh, and made some observation which I scarcely heard in
+my fierce determination to end this matter at once.
+
+"'Do you not think,' I persisted, 'that a woman who has doomed herself
+to perpetual seclusion has a right to be peculiar?'
+
+"'A woman of such beauty possesses most any rights she chooses to
+assert,' was his somewhat lame reply. He had evidently received a shock,
+and was greatly embarrassed.
+
+"'I laughed low to myself, but my father, comprehending as in a flash
+what I was attempting, turned livid and made me a threatening gesture.'
+
+"'I fear,' said he, 'that you will have to excuse my daughter for
+to-night. The misfortune which has befallen her has soured her temper,
+and this is not one of her amiable days.'
+
+"I made a curtsey deep as my disdain. 'I leave you to the enjoyment of
+your criticisms,' I exclaimed, and fled from the room in a flutter of
+mingled satisfaction and fear.
+
+"For though I had saved myself from any possible persecution on the part
+of Mr. Harding, I had done it at the cost of any possible reconciliation
+between my father and myself. And I was not yet so hardened that I could
+contemplate years of such life as I was then living without a pang of
+dread. Alas! if I had known what I was indeed preparing for myself, and
+how much worse a future dwelt in his mind than any I had contemplated!
+
+"Emma, who had been a silent and unobtrusive witness to what had
+occurred, soon followed me to my room.
+
+"'What have you done?' she asked. 'Why speak so to a stranger?'
+
+"'Father wants me to like him; father wants me to accept his attentions,
+and I detest him. I abhor his very presence in the house.'
+
+"'But----'
+
+"'I know he has only been here but twice; but that is enough, Emma; he
+shall not come here again with any idea that he will receive the least
+welcome from me.'
+
+"'Is he a person known to father? Is he----'
+
+"'Rich? Oh, yes; he is rich. That is why father thinks him an eligible
+son-in-law. His thousands would raise the threatened discovery into a
+fact.'
+
+"'I see. I pity you, Hermione. It is hard to disappoint a father in his
+dearest hopes.'
+
+"I stared at her in sudden fury.
+
+"'Is that what you are thinking of?' I demanded, with reckless
+impetuosity. 'After all the cruel disappointment he has inflicted upon
+me----'
+
+"But Emma had slipped from the room. She had no words now with which to
+meet my gusts of temper.
+
+"A visit from my father came next. Though strong in my resolve not to be
+shaken, I secretly quaked at the cold, cruel determination in his face.
+A man after all is so much more unrelenting than a woman.
+
+"'Hermione,' he cried, 'you have disobeyed me. You have insulted my
+guest, and you have shaken the hopes which I thought I had a right to
+form, being your father and the author of your being. I said if you did
+this you should suffer, but I mean to give you one more chance. Mr.
+Harding was startled rather than alienated. If you show yourself in
+future the amiable and sensible woman which you can be, he will forget
+this foolish ebullition and make you the offer his passion inspires.
+This would mean worldly prosperity, social consideration, and everything
+else which a reasonable woman, even if she has been disappointed in
+love, could require. While for me--you cannot know what it would be for
+me, for you have no capability for appreciating the noble study to which
+I am devoted.'
+
+"'No,' I said, hard and cold as adamant, 'I have no appreciation for a
+study which, like another Moloch, demands, not only the sacrifice of the
+self-respect, but even the lives of your unhappy children.'
+
+"'You rave,' was his harsh reply. 'I offer you all the pleasures of
+life, and you call it immolation. Is not Mr. Harding as much of a
+gentleman as Dr. Sellick? Do I ask you to accept the attentions of a
+boor or a scape-grace? He is called a very honorable man by those who
+know him, and if you were ten times handsomer than you are, ten times
+more amiable, and had no defect calculated to diminish the regard of
+most men, you would still be scarcely worthy to bear the name of so
+wealthy, honorable, and highly esteemed a young man.'
+
+"'Father, father!' I exclaimed, scarcely able to bear from him this
+allusion to my misfortune.
+
+"'Why he has taken such a sudden, and, if I may say it, violent fancy
+to you, I find it hard to understand myself. But he has done this, and
+he has not scrupled to tell me so, and to intimate that he would like
+the opportunity of cultivating your good graces. Will you, then--I ask
+it for the last time--extend him a welcome, or must I see my hopes
+vanish, and with them a life too feeble to survive the disappointment
+which their loss must occasion.'
+
+"'I cannot give any sort of welcome to this man,' I returned. 'If I did,
+I would be doing him a wrong, as well as you and myself. I dislike him,
+father, more than I can make you understand. His presence is worse than
+death to me; I would rather go to my coffin than to his arms. But if I
+liked him, if he were the beau-ideal of my dreams, could I break the vow
+I made one day in your presence? This man is not Dr. Sellick; do not
+then seek to make me forget the oath of isolation I have taken.'
+
+"'Fool! fool!' was my father's furious retort. 'I know he is not Dr.
+Sellick. If he were I should not have his cause to plead to _you_.'
+
+"How nearly his secret came out in his rage. 'If I could make you
+understand; make you see----'
+
+"'You make me see that I am giving you a great and bitter
+disappointment,' I broke in. 'But it only equalizes matters; you have
+given me one.'
+
+"He bounded to my side; he seized my arm and shook it.
+
+"'Drop that foolish talk,' he cried. 'I will hear no more of it, nor of
+your staying in the house on that account or any other. You will go out
+to-morrow. You will go out with Mr. Harding. You will----'
+
+"'Father,' I put in, chill as ice, 'do you expect to carry me out in
+your arms?'
+
+"He fell back; he was a small man, my father, and I, as you know, am
+large for a woman.
+
+"'You vixen!' he muttered, 'curses on the day when you were born!'
+
+"'That curse has been already pronounced,' I muttered.
+
+"He stood still, he made no answer, he seemed to be gathering himself
+together for a final appeal. Had he looked at me a little longer; had he
+shown any sympathy for my position, any appreciation for my wrongs, or
+any compunction for the share he had taken in them, I might have shown
+myself to have possessed some womanly softness and latent gentleness.
+But instead of that he took on in those few frightful moments such a
+look of cold, calculating hate that I was at once steeled and appalled.
+I hardly knew what he said when he cried at last:
+
+"'Once! twice! thrice! Will you do what I desire, Hermione?'
+
+"I only knew he had asked something I could not grant, so I answered,
+with what calmness I could, in the old formula, now for some months gone
+into disuse, 'I will not,' and sank, weary with my own emotions, into a
+chair.
+
+"He gave me one look--I shall never forget it,--and threw up his arms
+with what sounded like an imprecation.
+
+"'Then your sin be upon your own head!' he cried, and without another
+word left the room.
+
+"I was frightened; never had I seen such an expression on mortal face
+before. And this was my father; the man who had courted my mother; who
+had put the ring upon her finger at the altar; who had sat at her dying
+bed and smiled as she whispered: 'For a busy man, you have always been a
+good husband to me.' Was this or that the real man as he was? Had these
+depths been always hidden within him, or had I created them there by my
+hardness and disobedience? I will never know."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV.
+
+FATHER AND CHILD.
+
+
+"The night which followed this day was a sleepless one for me. Yet how I
+dreaded the morning! How I shrank from the first sight of my father's
+face! Had Auntie Lovell been with us I should have prevailed upon her to
+have gone to him and tried to smooth the way to some sort of
+reconciliation between us, but she was in Chicago, and I was not yet
+upon such terms with Emma that I could bear to make of her a go-between.
+I preferred to meet him without apology, and by dutifulness in all other
+respects make him forget in time my failure to oblige him in one. _I had
+made up my mind to go out of the house that day, though not with Mr.
+Harding._
+
+"But sometimes it seems as if Providence stepped in our way when we try
+to recover from any false position into which we have been betrayed by
+the heat and stress of our own passions. When I tried to rise I found
+myself ill, and for several days after that I knew little and cared less
+where I was, or what my future was like to be. When I was well enough to
+get up and go about my duties again, I found the house and my father in
+very much the same condition as they were before the fatal appearance of
+Mr. Harding. No look from his eye revealed that any great change had
+taken place in his attitude towards me, and after learning that Mr.
+Harding had come once since my illness, been closeted with my father for
+some time, and had then gone away with a rather formal and hard good-by
+to the anxious Emma, I began to feel that my fears had been part of the
+delirium of the fever which had afterwards set in, and that I was
+alarming myself and softening my heart more than was necessary.
+
+"The consequence was that I did not go out that afternoon, nor the next
+morning, nor for a week after, though I was always saying to myself that
+I would surprise them yet by a sudden dash out of the house when they
+showed, or rather my father showed, any such relenting in his studied
+attitude of indifference as would make such an action on the part of one
+constituted like myself, possible.
+
+"But he was thinking of anything else but relenting, and even I began
+to see in a few days that something portentous lay behind the apparent
+apathy of his manner. He worked as he had of old, or rather he shut
+himself up in his laboratory from morning until night, but when he did
+appear, there was something new in his manner that deeply troubled me. I
+began to shrink at the sound of his step, and more than once went
+without a meal rather than meet the cold glance of his eye.
+
+"Emma, who seemed to have little idea of what I suffered and of what I
+dreaded (what did I dread? I hardly knew) used to talk to me sometimes
+of our father's failing health; but I either hushed her or sat like a
+stone, I was in such a state of shuddering horror. I remember one day as
+I stole past the laboratory door, I beheld her with her arms round his
+neck, and the sight filled me with tumult, but whether it was one of
+longing or repugnance, or a mixture of both, I can hardly tell. But I
+know it was with difficulty I repressed a cry of grief, and that when I
+found myself alone my limbs were shaking under me like those of one
+stricken with ague. At last there came a day when father was no longer
+to be seen at the table. He ordered his meals brought to the laboratory,
+but denied being sick. I stared at Emma, who delivered this message, and
+asked her what she thought of it.
+
+"'That he _is_ ill,' she declared.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Two weeks later my father called me into his presence. I went in fear
+and trembling. He was standing by his desk in the laboratory, and I
+could not repress a start of surprise when I saw the change which had
+taken place in him. But I said nothing, only stood near the doorway and
+waited for what he had to say.
+
+"'Look at me,' he commanded. 'I am standing to-day; to-morrow I shall be
+sitting. I wish you to watch your work; now go.'
+
+"I turned, so shaken by his look and terrible wanness that I could
+hardly stand. But at the door I paused and cried in irrepressible
+terror:
+
+"'You are ill; let me send for a doctor. I cannot see you dying thus
+before my eyes.'
+
+"'You cannot?' With what a grim chuckle he uttered the words. 'We will
+see what you can bear.' Then as my eyes opened in terror, and I seemed
+about to flee, he cried, 'No doctor, do you hear? I will see none. And
+mark me, no talking about what goes on in this room, if you do not wish
+my curse.'
+
+"Aghast, I rushed from that unhallowed door. What did his words mean?
+What was his purpose? Upon what precipice of horror was I stumbling?
+
+"The next day he summoned me again. I felt too weak to go, but I dared
+not disobey. I opened his door with a shaking hand, and found him
+sitting, as he had promised, in an old arm-chair that had been his
+mother's.
+
+"'Do I look any better?' he asked.
+
+"I shook my head. He was evidently much worse.
+
+"'The poison of disobedience works slowly, but it works sure,' he cried.
+
+"I threw up my arms with a shriek.
+
+"He seemed to love the sound.
+
+"'You do not enjoy the fruits of your actions,' said he. 'You love your
+old father so dearly.'
+
+"I held out my hands; I entreated; I implored.
+
+"'Do not--do not look on me like this. Some dreadful thought is in your
+mind--some dreadful revenge. Do not cherish it; do not make my already
+ruined life a worse torture to me. Let me have help, let me send for a
+doctor----'
+
+"But his sternly lifted finger was already pointing at the door.
+
+"'You have stayed too long,' he muttered. 'Next time you will barely
+look in, and leave without a word.'
+
+"I crouched, he cowed me so, and then fled, this time to find Emma,
+Doris, some one.
+
+"They were both huddled in the hall below. They had heard our voices and
+were terrified at the sound.
+
+"'Don't you think he is very ill?' asked Emma. 'Don't you think we ought
+to have the doctor come, in spite of his commands to the contrary?'
+
+"'Yes,' I gasped, 'and quickly, or we will feel like murderers.'
+
+"'Dr. Dudgeon is a big know-nothing,' cried Doris.
+
+"'But he is a doctor,' I said. And Doris went for him at once.
+
+"When he came Emma undertook to take him to the laboratory; I did not
+dare. I sat on the stairs and listened, shaking in every limb. What was
+going on in that room? What was my father saying? What was the doctor
+deciding? When the door opened at last I was almost unconscious. The
+sound of the doctor's voice, always loud, struck upon my ears like
+thunder, but I could not distinguish his words. Not till he had come
+half-way down the stairs did I begin to understand them, and then I
+heard:
+
+"'A case of overwork! He will be better in a day or two. Send for me if
+he seems any worse.'
+
+"Overwork! that clay-white cheek! those dry and burning lips! the eyes
+hollowed out as if death were already making a skeleton of him! I seized
+the doctor's hand as he went by.
+
+"'Are you sure that is all?' I cried.
+
+"He gave me a pompous stare. 'I do not often repeat myself,' said he,
+and went haughtily out without another word.
+
+"Emma, standing at the top of the stairs, came down as the door closed
+behind him.
+
+"'Father was not so angry as I feared he would be. He smiled at the
+doctor and seemed glad to see him. He even roused himself up to talk,
+and for a few minutes did not look so ill as he really is.'
+
+"'Did the doctor leave medicine?' I asked.
+
+"'Oh, yes, plenty; powder and pills.'
+
+"'Where is it?'
+
+"'On father's desk. He says he will take it regularly. He would not let
+me give it to him.'
+
+"I reeled; everything seemed turning round with me.
+
+"'Watch him,' I cried, 'watch----' and could say no more.
+Unconsciousness had come to relieve me.
+
+"It was dark when I came to myself. I was lying on my own bed, and by
+the dim light burning on a small table near by I saw the form of Doris
+bending over me. Starting up, I caught her by the arm.
+
+"'What is going on?' I cried.
+
+"Rude noises were in the house. A sound of breaking glass.
+
+"'It comes from the laboratory,' she exclaimed, and rushed from the
+room.
+
+"I rose and had barely strength enough to follow her. When we reached
+the laboratory door Emma was already there. A light was burning at one
+end of the long and dismal room, and amid the weird shadows that it cast
+we saw our father in a loose gown he often wore when at work, standing
+over his table with lifted fist. It was bleeding; he had just brought it
+down upon a favorite collection of tubes.
+
+"'Ah!' he cried, tottering and seizing the table to steady himself; 'you
+have come to see the end of my famous discovery. Here it is; look!' And
+his fist came down again upon a jar containing the work of months.
+
+"The smash that followed seemed to echo in my brain. I rushed forward,
+but was stopped by his look.
+
+"'Another result of your obduracy,' he cried, and sank back fainting
+upon the hard floor.
+
+"I let Emma and Doris lift him. What place had I at his side?
+
+"'Shall I go for the doctor again?' inquired Doris as she came to my
+room a half-hour later.
+
+"'Does he seem worse?' I asked.
+
+"'No; but he looks dreadfully. Ever since we got him on the lounge--he
+would not leave the laboratory--he has lain in one position, his eye
+upon those broken pieces of glass. He would not even let me wipe up the
+red liquid that was in them, and it drips from table to floor in a way
+to make your blood run cold.'
+
+"'Can I see him,' I asked, 'without his seeing me?'
+
+"'Yes,' said she, 'if you come very carefully; his head is towards the
+door.'
+
+"I did as she bade, and crept towards the open door. As I reached it he
+was speaking low to himself.
+
+"'Drop by drop,' he was saying, 'just as if it were my life-blood that
+was dripping from the table to the floor.'
+
+"It was a terrible thing to hear, for _me_ to hear, and I shrank back.
+But soon a certain sense of duty drove me forward again, and I leaned
+across the threshold, peering at his rigid and attenuated figure lying
+just where he could watch the destruction of all his hopes. I could not
+see his face, but his attitude was eloquent, and I felt a pang strike
+through all my horror at the sight of a grief the death of both his
+children could not have occasioned him.
+
+"Suddenly he bounded up.
+
+"'Curse her!' he began, in a frenzy; but instantly seemed to bethink
+himself, for he sank back very meekly as Emma stooped over him and Doris
+rushed to his side. 'Excuse me,' said he; 'I fear I am not just in my
+right mind.'
+
+"They thought so too, and in a few minutes Doris stole out after the
+doctor, but I knew whatever delirium he had sprang from his hate of me,
+and was awed into a shrinking inactivity which Emma excused while only
+partially understanding.
+
+"The doctor came and this time I stood watching. My father, who had not
+expected this interference, showed anger at first, but soon settled back
+into a half-jocular, half-indifferent endurance of the interloper, which
+tended to impress the latter, and did succeed in doing so, with the
+folly of those who thought he was sick enough to rouse a doctor up at
+midnight. Few questions brought few replies, and the irritated physician
+left us with something like a rebuke. He however said he would come
+again in the morning, as there was a fitfulness in my father's pulse
+which he did not like.
+
+"But before the doctor appeared that morning father had called me for
+the third and last time to his side.
+
+"'I wish to see my eldest daughter alone,' he declared, as Emma lingered
+and Doris hovered about the open door. They at once went out. 'Now shut
+the door,' said he, as their footsteps were heard descending the stairs.
+
+"I did as I was bid, though I felt as if I were shutting myself in with
+some horrid doom.
+
+"'Now come in front of me,' he commanded, 'I want to look at you. I
+have just five minutes left in which to do it.'
+
+"'Five minutes!' I repeated hoarsely, creeping round with tottering and
+yet more tottering steps to where he pointed.
+
+"'Yes; the poison has done its work at last. At eight o'clock I shall be
+dead.'
+
+"'Poison!' I shrieked, but in so choked a tone the word sounded like a
+smothered whisper.
+
+"But he was alarmed by it for all that.
+
+"'Do not tell the world,' he cried. 'It is enough that you know it. Are
+you pleased that you have driven your father to self-destruction? Will
+it make your life in this house, in which you have vowed to remain, any
+happier? I told you that your sin should be on your head; and it will
+be. For, listen to me: now in this last dreadful hour, I command you,
+heartless and disobedient one, to keep that vow. By this awful death, by
+the despair which has driven me to it, beware of leaving these doors. In
+your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in your remorse see
+that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for hatred, dare to cross the
+threshold, or I will denounce you in the grave where I shall be gone,
+and my curse shall be upon you.'
+
+"He had risen in his passion as he uttered these words, but he sank
+back as he finished, and I thought he was dead. Terrified, crushed, I
+sank upon my knees, having no words with which to plead for the mercy
+for which I now longed. The next minute a horrible groan burst upon my
+ear.
+
+"'It eats--it burns into my vitals. The suffering has come,--the
+suffering which I have often noted with unconcern in the animals upon
+which I tested it. I cannot bear it; I had rather live. Get me the
+antidote; there, there, in the long narrow drawer in the cabinet by the
+wall. Not there, not there!' he shrieked, as I stumbled over the floor,
+which seemed to rise in waves beneath my feet. 'The other cabinet, the
+other drawer; _you are where the poison is_.'
+
+"I halted; weights seemed to be upon my feet; I could not move. He was
+writhing in agony on the floor; he no longer seemed to know where I
+stood.
+
+"'Open it--the drawer,' he cried. 'Bring me what is in it.'
+
+"I reached out my hand; heaven and earth seemed to stand still; red
+lights danced before my eyes; I drew out the drawer.
+
+"'Quick, quick, the powder!' he moaned; 'fetch it!'
+
+"I was staring at him, but my hand groped in the drawer. I felt a little
+packet of powder; I took it and crossed the room. As soon as I was near
+him he stretched out his hand and grasped it. I saw him empty it into
+his mouth; at the same instant his eyes fixed themselves in horror on
+the drawer I had left open behind me, the drawer in which the poison was
+kept.
+
+"'Curse you for a----' He never said what. With this broken imprecation
+upon his lips, he sank back upon the floor, dead."
+
+
+
+
+XXV.
+
+EDGAR AND FRANK.
+
+
+Frank, who had been reading these words as if swept along by a torrent,
+started to his feet with a hoarse cry, as he reached this point. He
+could not believe his eyes, he could not believe his understanding. He
+shrank from the paper that contained the deadly revelation, as though a
+snake had suddenly uncoiled itself from amid the sheets. With hair
+slowly rising on his forehead, he stared and stared, hoping wildly,
+hoping against hope, to see other words start from the sheet, and blot
+out of existence the ones that had in an instant made his love a horror,
+his life a desert.
+
+But no, Heaven works no such miracle, even in sight of such an agony as
+his; and the words met his gaze relentlessly till his misery was more
+than he could endure, and he rushed from the room like a madman.
+
+Edgar, who was busy over some medical treatise, rose rapidly as he heard
+the unsteady footsteps of his friend.
+
+"What is the matter?" he cried, as Frank came stumbling into his
+presence. "You look----"
+
+"Never mind how I look; comfort me, Edgar, comfort me!" and in his
+anguish he burst into irrepressible sobs "Hermione is----" He could not
+say what, but drew his friend after him to the room where the letter
+lay, and pointed to the few ghastly lines which had undone him. "Read
+those," he panted. "She had suffered; she was not herself, but, oh----"
+He broke down again, and did not try to speak further till Edgar had
+read the hideous confession contained in those closing lines, and some
+of the revelations which had led up to it. Then he said: "Do not speak
+to me yet; let me bear the horror alone. I loved her so; ah, I did love
+her!"
+
+Edgar, who had turned very pale, was considerate enough to respect this
+grief, and silently wait for Frank to regain sufficient composure to
+talk with him. This was not soon, but when the moment came, Edgar showed
+that his heart beat truly under all his apparent indifference. He did
+not say, "I bade you beware"; he merely took his friend's hand and wrung
+it. Frank, who was almost overwhelmed with shame and sorrow, muttered
+some words of acknowledgment.
+
+"I must get out of the town," said he. "I feel as if the very atmosphere
+here would choke me."
+
+Here came again the long, doleful drone of the foghorn. "How like a
+groan that is," said he. "An evil day it was for me when I first came
+within its foreboding sound."
+
+"We will say that when all is over," ventured Edgar, but in no very
+hopeful tones. "You should not have shown me these words, Frank; the
+wonder is that she was willing to show them to you."
+
+"She could not otherwise get rid of my importunities. I would take no
+hint, and so she tells me the truth."
+
+"That shows nobleness," remarked Edgar. "She has some virtues which may
+excuse you to yourself for the weakness you have shown in her regard."
+
+"I dare not think of it," said Frank. "I dare not think of her again.
+Yet to leave her when she is suffering so! Is not that almost as cruel a
+fate as to learn that she is so unworthy?"
+
+"I would you had never come here!" exclaimed Edgar, with unwonted
+fervency.
+
+"There are more words," observed Frank, "but I cannot read them. "Words
+of sorrow and remorse, no doubt, but what do they avail? The fact
+remains that she gave her father in his agony another dose of the poison
+that was killing him, instead of the antidote for which he prayed."
+
+"Yes," said Edgar, "only I feel bound to say that no antidote would have
+saved him then. I know the poison and I know the antidote; we have
+tested them together often."
+
+Frank shuddered.
+
+"He had the heart of a demon," declared Edgar, "to plan and carry out
+such a revenge, even upon a daughter who had so grievously disappointed
+him. I can hardly believe the tale, only that I have learned that one
+may believe anything of human nature."
+
+"She--she did not kill him, then?"
+
+"No, but her guilt is as great as if she had, for she must have had the
+momentary instinct of murder."
+
+"O Hermione, Hermione! so beautiful and so unhappy!"
+
+"A momentary instinct, which she is expiating fearfully. No wonder she
+does not leave the house. No wonder that her face looks like a tragic
+mask."
+
+"No one seems to have suspected her guilt, or even his. We have never
+heard any whispers about poison."
+
+"Dudgeon is a conceited fool. Having once said overwork, he would stick
+to overwork. Besides that poison is very subtle; I would have difficulty
+in detecting its workings myself."
+
+"And this is the tragedy of that home! Oh, how much worse, how much more
+fearful than any I have attributed to it!"
+
+The Doctor sighed.
+
+"What has not Emma had to bear," he said.
+
+"Emma!" Frank unconsciously roused himself. "If I remember rightly,
+Hermione has said that Emma did not know all her trouble."
+
+"Thank God! May she never be enlightened."
+
+"Edgar," whispered Frank, "I do not think I can let you read all that
+letter, though it tells much you ought to know. I have yet some
+consideration--for--for Hermione--" (How hard the word came from lips
+which once uttered it with so much pride!)--"and she never expected any
+other eyes than mine to rest upon these revelations of her heart of
+hearts. But one thing I must tell you in justice to yourself and the
+girl upon whom no shadow rests but that of a most loyal devotion to a
+most wretched sister. Not from her heart did the refusal come which
+blighted your hopes and made you cynical towards women. There were
+reasons she could not communicate, reasons she could not even dwell upon
+herself, why she felt forced to dismiss you, and in the seemingly
+heartless way she did."
+
+"I am willing to believe it," said Edgar.
+
+"Emma is a pure and beautiful spirit," observed Frank, and gave himself
+up to grief for her who was not, and yet who commanded his pity for her
+sufferings and possibly for her provocations.
+
+Edgar now had enough of his own to think of, and if Frank had been less
+absorbed in his own trouble he might have observed with what longing
+eyes his friend turned every now and then towards the sheets which
+contained so much of Emma's history as well as her sister's. Finally he
+spoke:
+
+"Why does Emma remain in the house to which the father only condemned
+her sister?"
+
+"Because she once vowed to share that sister's fate, whatever it might
+be."
+
+"Her love for her sister is then greater than any other passion she may
+have had."
+
+"I don't know; there were other motives beside love to influence her,"
+explained Frank, and said no more.
+
+Edgar sank again into silence. It was Frank who spoke next.
+
+"Do you think"--He paused and moistened his lips--"Have you doubted what
+our duty is about this matter?"
+
+"To leave the girl--you said it yourself. Have you any other idea,
+Frank?"
+
+"No, no; that is not what I mean," stammered Etheridge. "I mean
+about--about--the father's death. Should the world know? Is it a matter
+for the--for the police?"
+
+"No," cried Edgar, aghast. "Mr. Cavanagh evidently killed himself. It is
+a dreadful thing to know, but I do not see why we need make it public."
+
+Frank drew a long breath.
+
+"I feared," he said,--"I did not know but you would think my duty would
+lie in--in----"
+
+"Don't speak of it," exclaimed Edgar. "If you do not wish to finish
+reading her confession, put it up. Here is a drawer, in which you can
+safely lock it."
+
+Frank, recoiling from the touch of those papers which had made such a
+havoc with his life, motioned to Edgar to do what he would with them.
+
+"Are you not going to write--to answer this in some way?" asked Edgar.
+
+"Thank God she has not made that necessary. She wrote somewhere, in the
+beginning, I think, that, if I felt the terror of her words too deeply,
+I was to pass by her house on the other side of the street at an early
+hour in the morning. Did she dream that I could do anything else?"
+
+Edgar closed the drawer in which he had hidden her letter, locked it,
+and laid the key down on the table beside Frank.
+
+Frank did not observe the action; he had risen to his feet, and in
+another moment had left the room. He had reached the point of feeling
+the need of air and a wider space in which to breathe. As he stepped
+into the street, he turned in a contrary direction to that in which he
+had been wont to walk. Had he not done this; had he gone southward, as
+usual, he might have seen the sly and crouching figure which was drawn
+up on that side of the house, peering into the room he had just left
+through the narrow opening made by an imperfectly lowered shade.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+UNCLE AND NIECE.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI.
+
+THE WHITE POWDER.
+
+
+It was nine o'clock in the morning, and Hermione stood in the laboratory
+window overlooking the street. Pale from loss of sleep and exhausted
+with the fever of anxiety which had consumed her ever since she had
+despatched her letter to Mr. Etheridge, she looked little able to cope
+with any disappointment which might be in store for her. But as she
+leaned there watching for Frank, it was evident from her whole bearing
+that she was moved by a fearful hope rather than by an overmastering
+dread; perhaps because she had such confidence in his devotion; perhaps
+because there was such vitality in her own love.
+
+Her manner was that of one who thinks himself alone, and yet she was
+not alone. At the other end of the long and dismal apartment glided the
+sly figure of Huckins. No longer shabby and unkempt, but dressed with a
+neatness which would have made his sister Cynthia stare in amazement if
+she could have risen from her grave to see him, he flitted about with
+noiseless tread, listening to every sigh that escaped from his niece's
+lips, and marking, though he scarcely glanced her way, each turn of her
+head and each bend of her body, as if he were fully aware of her reasons
+for standing there, and the importance of the issues hanging upon the
+occurrences of the next fifteen minutes.
+
+She may have known of his presence, and she may not. Her preoccupation
+was great, and her attention fixed not upon anything in the room, but
+upon the street without. Yet she may have felt the influence of that
+gliding Evil, moving, snake-like, at her back. If she did she gave no
+sign, and the moments came and went without any change in her eager
+attitude or any cessation in the ceaseless movements with which he
+beguiled his own anxiety and the devilish purposes which were slowly
+forming themselves in his selfish and wicked mind.
+
+At length she gave a start, and leaned heavily forward. Huckins, who was
+expecting this proof of sudden interest, paused where he was, and
+surveyed her with undisguised eagerness in his baleful eyes, while the
+words "She sees him; he is coming" formed themselves upon his thin and
+quivering lips, though no sound disturbed the silence, and neither he
+nor she seemed to breathe.
+
+And he was right. Frank was coming down the street, not gayly and with
+the buoyant step of a happy lover, but with head sunk upon his breast
+and eyes lowered to the ground. Will he lift them as he approaches the
+gate? Will he smile, as in the olden time--the olden time that was
+yesterday--and raise his hand towards the gate and swing it back and
+enter with that lightsome air of his at once protecting and
+joy-inspiring? He looks very serious now, and his steps falter; but
+surely, surely, his love is not going to fail him at the crisis; surely,
+surely, he who has overlooked so much will not be daunted by the little
+more with which she has tried his devotion; surely, surely---- But his
+eyes do not lift themselves. He is at the gate, but his hand is not
+raised to it, and the smile does not come. He is going by, not on the
+other side of the street, but going by, going by, which means----
+
+As the consciousness of what it did mean pierced her heart and soul,
+Hermione gave a great cry--she never knew how great a cry--and, staring
+like one demented after the beloved figure that in her disordered sight
+seemed to shrink and waver as it vanished, sank helpless upon the window
+sill, with her head falling forward, in a deadly faint.
+
+Huckins, hearing that cry, slowly rubbed his hands together and smiled
+as the Dark One might smile at the sudden downfall of some doubtful
+soul. Then he passed softly to the door, and, shutting it carefully,
+came back and recommenced his restless pacings, but this time with an
+apparent purpose of investigation, for he opened and shut drawers, not
+quietly, but with a decided clatter, and peered here and there into
+bottles and jars, casting, as he did so, ready side-glances at the
+drooping figure from which the moans of a fatal despair were now slowly
+breaking.
+
+When those moans became words, he stopped and listened, and this was
+what he heard come faltering from her lips:
+
+"Twice! twice! Once when I felt myself strong and now when I feel myself
+weak. It is too much for a proud woman. I cannot bear it."
+
+At this evidence of revolt and discouragement, Huckins' smile grew in
+its triumph. He seemed to glide nearer to her; yet he did not stir.
+
+She saw nothing. If she had once recognized his presence, he was to her
+now as one blotted from existence. She was saying over and over to
+herself: "No hope! no hope! I am cursed! My father's hate reaches higher
+than my prayers. There is no escape; no love, no light. Solitude is
+before me; solitude forever. Believing this, I cannot live; indeed I
+cannot!"
+
+As if this had been the word for which he was waiting, Huckins suddenly
+straightened up his lean figure and began himself to talk, not as she
+did, in wild and passionate tones, but in low, abstracted murmurs, as if
+he were too intent upon a certain discovery he had made to know or care
+whether there was or was not any one present to overhear his words.
+
+And what did he say? what could he say at a moment like this? Listen
+and gauge the evil in the man, for it is deep as his avarice and
+relentless as his purpose to enjoy the riches which he considers his
+due. He is standing by a cabinet, the cabinet on the left of the room,
+and his hand is in a long and narrow drawer.
+
+"What is this?" (Mark the surprise in his tone.) "A packet labelled
+_Poison_? This is a strange thing to find lying about in an open drawer.
+_Poison!_ I wonder what use brother Cavanagh had for poison?"
+
+He pauses; was it because he had heard a moan or cry break from the spot
+where Hermione crouched against the wall? No, there was silence there, a
+deep and awful silence, which ought to have made the flesh creep upon
+his bones, but which, instead, seemed to add a greater innocence to his
+musing tones.
+
+"I suppose it was what was left after some old experiment. It is very
+dangerous stuff. I should not like to drop these few grains of white
+powder upon my tongue, unless I wanted to be rid of all my troubles.
+Guess I had better shake the paper out of the window, or those girls
+will come across it some day, and may see that word Poison and be moved
+by it. Life in this house hasn't many attractions."
+
+Any sound now from that dim, distant corner? No, silence is there still;
+deadly silence. He smiles darkly, and speaks again; very low now, but
+oh, how clearly!
+
+"But what business is it of mine? I find poison in this drawer, and I
+leave it where I find it, and shut the drawer. It may be wanted for
+rats, and it is always a mistake for old folks to meddle. But I should
+like to; I'd like to throw this same innocent-looking white powder out
+of the window; it makes _me_ afraid to think of it lying shut up here in
+a drawer so easily opened---- My child! Hermione!" he suddenly shrieked,
+"what do you want?"
+
+She was standing before him, a white and terrible figure.
+
+"Nothing," came from her set lips, in a low and even tone; but she laid
+one hand upon the drawer he had half shut and with the other pointed to
+the door.
+
+He shrank from her, appalled perhaps at his work; perhaps at her
+recognition of it.
+
+"Don't," he feebly protested, shaking with terror, or was it with a
+hideous anxiety? "There is poison in that drawer; do not open it."
+
+"Go for my sister," was the imperious command. "I have no use for you
+here, but for her I have."
+
+"You won't open that drawer," he prayed, as he retreated before her eyes
+in frightened jerks and breathless pauses.
+
+"I tell you I do not need you," she repeated, her hand still on the
+drawer, her form rigid, her face blue-white and drawn.
+
+"I--I will bring Emma," he faltered, and shambled across the threshold,
+throwing back upon her a look she may have noted and may not, but which
+if she had understood, would certainly have made her pause. "I will go
+for Emma," he said again, closing the door behind him with a touch which
+seemed to make even that senseless wood fall away from him. Then he
+listened--listened instead of going for the gentle sister whose presence
+might have calmed the turbulent spirit he had just left. And as he
+listened his face gradually took on a satisfied look, till, at a certain
+sound from within, he allowed his hands the luxury of a final
+congratulatory rub, and then gliding from the place, went below.
+
+Emma was standing in the parlor window, fixed in dismay at the sight of
+Frank's going by without word or look; but Huckins did not stop to give
+her the message with which he had been entrusted. Instead of that he
+passed into the kitchen, and not till he had crossed the floor and
+shambled out into the open air of the garden did he venture to turn and
+say to the watching Doris:
+
+"I am afraid Miss Hermione is not quite well."
+
+
+
+
+XXVII.
+
+THE HAND OF HUCKINS.
+
+
+Frank exhausted his courage in passing Hermione's door. When he heard
+the cry she gave, he stopped for a moment, then rushed hastily on, not
+knowing whither, and not caring, so long as he never saw the street or
+the house or the poplars again.
+
+He intended, as much as he intended anything, to take the train for New
+York, but when he came sufficiently to himself to think of the hour, he
+found that he was in a wood quite remote from the station, and that both
+the morning and noon trains had long since passed.
+
+It was not much of a disappointment. He was in that stage of misery in
+which everything seems blurred, and life and its duties too unreal for
+contemplation. He did not wish to act or even to think. The great
+solitude about him was more endurable than the sight of human faces, but
+I doubt if he would have been other than solitary anywhere, or seen
+aught but her countenance in any place where he might have been.
+
+And what made this the more torturing to him was the fact that he
+always saw her with an accusing look on her face. Never with bowed
+forehead or in an attitude of shame, but with the straightforward aspect
+of one utterly grieved where she had expected consideration and
+forbearance. This he knew to be a freak of his fancy, for had he not her
+words to prove she had merited his condemnation? But fancy or not, it
+followed him, softening unconsciously his thought of her, though it
+never for an instant weakened his resolve not to see her again or
+exchange another word with one whose conscience was laden with so heavy
+a crime.
+
+The wood in which he found himself wandering skirted the town towards
+the west, so that when, in the afternoon, hunger and weariness drove him
+back to the abodes of men, he had but to follow the beaten track which
+ran through it, to come out at the other end of the village from that by
+which he had entered.
+
+The place where he emerged was near a dark pool at the base of the hill
+on which was perched the Baptist church.
+
+As he saw this pool and caught a sight of the steeple towering above
+him in the summer sky, he felt himself grow suddenly frantic. Here she
+had stood with Emma, halting between life and death. Here she had been
+seized by her first temptation, and had been saved from it only to fall
+into another one immeasurably greater and more damning. Horrible,
+loathsome pool! why had it not swallowed her? Would it not have been
+better that it had? He dared to think so, and bent above its dismal
+depths with a fascination which in another moment made him recoil and
+dash away in horror towards the open spaces of the high-road.
+
+Edgar had just come in from his round of visits when Frank appeared
+before him. Having supposed him to be in New York, he uttered a loud
+exclamation. Whereupon Frank exclaimed:
+
+"I could not go. I seemed to be chained to this place. I have been
+wandering all day in the woods." And he sank into a chair exhausted,
+caring little whether Edgar noted or not his weary and dishevelled
+appearance.
+
+"You look ill," observed the Doctor; "or perhaps you have not eaten; let
+me get you a cup of coffee."
+
+Frank looked up but made no further sign.
+
+"You will stay with me to-night," suggested Edgar.
+
+"I am chained," repeated Frank, and that was all.
+
+With a look of sincerest compassion the Doctor quietly left the room. He
+had his own griefs, but he could master them; beside, the angel of hope
+was already whispering sweet messages to his secret soul. But Frank's
+trouble was beyond alleviation, and it crushed him as his own had never
+done, possibly because in this case his pride was powerless to sustain
+him. When he came back, he found Frank seated at the desk poring over
+the fatal letter. He had found the key of the drawer lying where he had
+left it, and, using it under a sudden impulse, had opened the drawer and
+taken out the sheets he had vowed never to touch again.
+
+Edgar paused when he saw the other's bended head and absorbed air, and
+though he was both annoyed and perplexed he said nothing, but set down
+the tray he had brought very near to Frank's elbow.
+
+The young lawyer neither turned nor gave it any attention.
+
+Edgar, with the wonted patience of a physician, sat down and waited for
+his friend to move. He would not interrupt him, but would simply be in
+readiness to hand the coffee when Frank turned. But he never handed him
+that cup of coffee, for suddenly, Frank, with a wild air and eyes fixed
+in a dazed stare upon the paper, started to his feet, and uttering a
+cry, began turning over the two or three sheets he was reading, as if he
+had made some almost incomprehensible discovery.
+
+"Edgar, Edgar," he hurriedly gasped, "read these over for me; I cannot
+see the words; there is something different here; we have made a
+mistake! Oh, what has happened! my head is all in a whirl."
+
+He sank back in his chair. Edgar, rushing forward, seized the half dozen
+sheets offered him and glanced eagerly over them.
+
+"I see no difference," he cried; but as he went on, driven by Frank's
+expectant eye, he gave a surprised start also, and turning back the
+pages, read them again and again, crying at last:
+
+"We must have overlooked one of these sheets. We read her letter
+without this page. What a mischance! for with these words left in it is
+no longer a confession we have before us, but a narrative. Frank, Frank,
+we have wronged the girl. She has no crime to bemoan, only a misery to
+relate."
+
+"Read it aloud," broke from Frank's lips. "Let me hear it from your
+mouth. How could we have overlooked such a page? Oh, my poor girl! my
+poor girl!"
+
+Edgar, beginning back a page or two from the one which had before
+escaped their attention, read as follows. The portion marked by brackets
+is the one that was new to both their eyes:
+
+    "But before the doctor appeared that morning father had called
+    me for the third and last time to his side.
+
+    "'I wish to see my eldest daughter alone,' he declared, as Emma
+    lingered and Doris hovered about the open door. They at once
+    went out. 'Now shut the door,' said he, as their footsteps were
+    heard descending the stairs.
+
+    "I did as I was bid, though I felt as if I were shutting myself
+    in with some horrid doom.
+
+    "'Now come in front of me,' he commanded. 'I want to look at
+    you; I have just five minutes left in which to do it.'
+
+    "'Five minutes!' I repeated hoarsely, creeping round with
+    tottering and yet more tottering steps to where he pointed.
+
+    "'Yes; the poison has done its work at last. At eight o'clock I
+    shall be dead.'
+
+    "'Poison!' I shrieked, but in so choked a tone the word sounded
+    like a smothered whisper.
+
+    "But he was alarmed by it for all that.
+
+    "'Do not tell the world,' he cried. 'It is enough that you know
+    it. Are you pleased that you have driven your father to
+    self-destruction? Will it make your life in this house, in which
+    you have vowed to remain, any happier? I told you that your sin
+    should be on your head, and it will be. For, listen to me: now
+    in this last dreadful hour, I command you, heartless and
+    disobedient one, to keep that vow. By this awful death, by the
+    despair which has driven me to it, beware of leaving these
+    doors. In your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in
+    your remorse see that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for
+    hatred, dare to cross the threshold, or I will denounce you in
+    the grave where I shall be gone, and my curse shall be upon
+    you.'
+
+    "He had risen in his passion as he uttered these words, but he
+    sank back as he finished, and I thought he was dead.
+
+    "Terrified, crushed, I sank upon my knees, having no words with
+    which to plead for the mercy for which I now longed. The next
+    minute a horrible groan burst upon my ear.
+
+    "'It eats--it burns into my vitals. The suffering has
+    come,--the suffering which I have often noted with unconcern in
+    the animals upon which I had tested it. I cannot bear it; I had
+    rather live. Get me the antidote; there, there in the long,
+    narrow drawer in the cabinet by the wall! Not there, not there!'
+    he shrieked, as I stumbled over the floor, which seemed to rise
+    in waves beneath my feet. 'The other cabinet, the other drawer;
+    _you are where the poison is_.'
+
+    "I halted; weights seemed to be upon my feet; I could not move.
+    He was writhing in agony on the floor; he no longer seemed to
+    know where I stood.
+
+        { "'The antidote!' he moaned, 'the antidote!'            }
+        { I burst the bonds which held me, and leaving open      }
+        { the drawer which I had half pulled out in my eagerness }
+        { to relieve him, I rushed across the room to the        }
+        { cabinet he had pointed out.                            }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "'The long drawer,' he murmured, 'the one              }
+        { like the other. Pull it hard; it is not locked!'       }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "I tried to do as he commanded, but my hand            }
+        { slid helplessly from drawer to drawer. I could         }
+        { hardly see. He moaned and shrieked again.              }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "'The long one, I say, the long one!'                  }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "As he spoke my hand touched it.                       }
+        {                                                        }
+        { "'I have it,' I panted forth.                          }
+
+    "'Open it--the drawer,' he cried. 'Bring me what is in it.'
+
+    "I reached out my hand; heaven and earth seemed to stand still;
+    red lights danced before my eyes; I drew out the drawer.
+
+    "'Quick, quick, the powder!' he moaned; 'fetch it!'
+
+    "I was staring at him, but my hand groped in the drawer. I felt
+    a little packet of powder; I took it and crossed the room. As
+    soon as I was near him he stretched out his hand and grasped it.
+    I saw him empty it into his mouth; at the same instant his eyes
+    fixed themselves in horror on the drawer I had left open behind
+    me, the drawer in which the poison was kept.
+
+    "'Curse you for a ----' He never said what. With this broken
+    imprecation upon his lips, he sank back upon the floor, dead."
+
+"God, what a difference!" cried Edgar. But Frank, trembling from head to
+foot, reached out and took the sheets, and laying them on the desk
+before him, buried his face in them. When he looked up again, Edgar, for
+all his own relief, was startled by the change in him.
+
+"Her vindication comes late," said he, "but I will go at once and
+explain----"
+
+"Wait; let us first understand how we both were led to make such a
+mistake. Could the leaves have stuck together?"
+
+There were no signs of this having happened. Yet who could say that
+this was not the real explanation of the whole matter? The most curious
+feature of the occurrence was that just the missing of that one sheet
+should have so altered the sense of what they read. They did not know
+then or ever that this very fact had struck Huckins also in his stolen
+reading of the same, and that it had been his hand which had abstracted
+it and then again restored it when he thought the mutilated manuscript
+had done its work. They never knew this, as I say, but they thought the
+chance which had occurred to them a very strange one, and tried to lay
+it to their agitation at the time, or to any cause but the real one.
+
+The riddle proving insolvable, they abandoned it, and Frank again rose.
+But Edgar drawing his attention to the few additional sheets which he
+had never read, he sat down again in eagerness to peruse them. Let us
+read them with him, for in them we shall find the Hermione of to-day,
+not the angry and imperious woman upon whom her father revenged himself
+by a death calculated to blot the sun from her skies and happiness from
+her heart forever.
+
+    "When Emma came to the room she discovered me kneeling, rigid
+    and horror-stricken, above my father's outstretched form. She
+    says that I met her eyes with mine, but that there was no look
+    of life within them. Indeed, I was hardly alive, and have no
+    remembrance of how I was taken from that room or what happened
+    in the house for hours. When I did rouse, Emma was beside me.
+    Her look was one of grief but not of horror, and I saw she had
+    no idea of what had passed between my father and myself during
+    the last few days. Dr. Dudgeon had told her that our father had
+    died of heart-disease, and she believed him, and thought my
+    terror was due to the suddenness of his end and the fact that I
+    was alone with him at the time.
+
+    "She therefore smiled with a certain faint encouragement when I
+    opened my eyes upon her face, but pushed me back with gentle
+    hand when I tried to rise, saying:
+
+    "'All is well with father, Hermione,--so think only of yourself
+    just now; I do not think you are able to get up.'
+
+    "I was only too happy not to make the effort. If only my eyes
+    had never opened! If only I had sunk from unconsciousness into
+    the perfect peace of death! But even that idea made me quake.
+    _He_ was _there_, and I had such a horror of him, that it seemed
+    for a moment that I would rather live forever than to encounter
+    him again, even in a world where the secrets of all hearts lie
+    open.
+
+    "'Did not father forgive you?' murmured Emma, marking perhaps
+    the expression of my face.
+
+    "I smiled a bitter smile.
+
+    "'Do not ever let us talk about father,' I prayed. 'He has
+    condemned me to this house, and that will make me remember him
+    sufficiently without words.'
+
+    "She rose horror-stricken.
+
+    "'O Hermione!' she murmured; 'O Hermione!' and hid her face in
+    her hands and wept.
+
+    "But I lay silent, tearless.
+
+    "When the funeral procession passed out of the house without
+    us, the people stared. But no thought of there being anything
+    back of this seeming disrespect, save the caprice of two very
+    whimsical girls, seemed to strike the mind of any one. The paper
+    which had held the antidote I had long ago picked up from the
+    laboratory floor; while the open drawer with the packet in it
+    marked _Poison_ had doubtless been shut by Doris on her first
+    entrance into the room after his death. For I not only found it
+    closed, but I never heard any one speak of it, or of any
+    peculiar symptoms attending my father's death.
+
+    "But the arrow was in my heart for all that, and for weeks my
+    life was little more than a nightmare. All the pride which had
+    upheld me was gone. I felt myself a crushed woman. The pall
+    which my father had thrown over me in his self-inflicted death,
+    hung heavy and stifling about me. I breathed, but it seemed to
+    be in gasps, and when exhausted nature gave way and I slept, it
+    was to live over again in dreams those last fearful moments of
+    his life, and hear, with even more distinctness than in my
+    waking hours, the words of the final curse with which he sank to
+    the floor.
+
+    "I had not deserved it--that I felt; but I suffered all the
+    same, and suffered all the more that I could take no confidant
+    into my troubles. Emma, with her broken life, had had
+    disappointments enough without this revelation of a father's
+    vindictiveness, and though it might have eased me for the moment
+    to hear her words of sympathy, I knew that I should find it
+    harder to face her day by day, if this ghost of horror once rose
+    between us. No; the anguish was mine, and must be borne by me
+    alone. So I crushed it down into my heart and was silent.
+
+    "Meantime the command which had been laid upon me by my father,
+    never to leave the house, was weaving a chain about me I soon
+    found it impossible to break. Had I immediately upon his death
+    defied his will and rushed frenziedly out of the gate, I might
+    have grown to feel it easy to walk the streets again in the face
+    of a curse which should never have been laid upon me. But the
+    custom of obeying his dying mandate soon got its hold upon me,
+    and I could not overcome it. At the very thought of crossing the
+    threshold I would tremble; and though when I looked at Emma
+    heroically sharing my fate without knowing the reasons for my
+    persistency, I would dream for a moment of breaking the spell
+    those dying lips had laid upon me, I always found myself drawing
+    back in terror, almost as if I had been caught by fleshless
+    fingers.
+
+    "And so the weeks passed and we settled into the monotonous
+    existence of an uninterrupted seclusion. What had been the
+    expression of my self-will, became now a species of expiation.
+    For though I had not deserved the awful burden which had been
+    imposed upon me of a father's death and curse, I had deserved
+    punishment, and this I now saw, and this I now endeavored to
+    meet, with something like the meekness of repentance. I accepted
+    my doom, and tried not to dwell so much upon my provocations as
+    upon the temper with which I met them, and the hardness with
+    which I strove to triumph over my disappointments. And in doing
+    this I became less hard, preparing my heart, though I did not
+    know it, for that new seed of love which fate was about to drop
+    into it.
+
+    "Mr. Etheridge, I have told you all my story. If it strikes you
+    with dismay and you shrink in your noble manhood from a woman
+    whom, rightfully or wrongfully, is burdened with the weight of a
+    father's death, do not try to overcome that shrinking or defy
+    that dismay. We could never be happy if you did. Nothing but
+    whole-souled love will satisfy me or help me to forget the
+    shadows that bear so heavily upon my head. You say you love me,
+    but your emotions upon reading this letter will prove to
+    yourself what is the true strength and nature of your feelings.
+    Let them, then, have their honest way. If they are in my favor I
+    shall be the happiest girl alive, but if they lead you to go by
+    on the other side of the street, then will I strive to bear this
+    sorrow also, as one who has been much to blame for the evils
+    which have befallen her."
+
+That was all. As Frank folded the last sheet and put it and the rest
+quietly away in his pocket, Edgar saw, or thought he saw, that happier
+hours were about to dawn for Hermione Cavanagh. It made him think of his
+own love and of the claims of the gentle Emma.
+
+"Frank," said he, with the effort of a reticent man compelled at last
+to make an admission, "if you are going to the Cavanaghs, I
+think--I--will--go--with you."
+
+Frank started and leaped forward warmly with outstretched hand. But
+before their two palms could meet, the door was violently opened and a
+messenger came panting in with the announcement:
+
+"Dr. Sellick's wanted. Hermione Cavanagh is at the point of death."
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII.
+
+IN EXTREMITY.
+
+
+Frank and Edgar were equally pale as they reached the Cavanagh house. No
+time had been lost on the way, and yet the moments had been long enough
+for them both to be the prey of the wildest conjectures. The messenger
+who had brought the startling news of Hermione's illness knew nothing
+concerning the matter beyond the fact that Doris, their servant, had
+called to him, as he was passing their house, to run for Dr. Sellick, as
+Miss Hermione was dying. They were therefore entirely in the dark as to
+what had happened, and entered the house, upon their arrival, like men
+for whom some terrible doom might be preparing.
+
+The first person they encountered was Huckins. He was standing in the
+parlor window, rubbing his hands slowly together and smiling very softly
+to himself. But when he saw the two young men, he came forward with a
+cringing bow and an expression of hypocritical grief, which revived all
+Frank's distrust and antipathy.
+
+"Oh, sir," he exclaimed to Frank, "you here? You should not have come;
+indeed you should not. Sad case," he added, turning to the Doctor; "very
+sad case, this which we have upstairs. I fear we are going to lose the
+dear young lady." And he wiped his half-shut eyes with his fine white
+handkerchief.
+
+"Let me see her; where is she?" cried the Doctor, not stopping to look
+around him, though the place must have been full of the most suggestive
+associations.
+
+"Doris will show you. She was in the laboratory when I saw her last. A
+dangerous place for a young lady who has been jilted by her lover!" And
+he turned a very twinkling eye on Frank.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Frank. "The laboratory! The place where---- O
+Edgar, go to her, go at once."
+
+But Edgar was already half-way upstairs, at the top of which he was met
+by Doris.
+
+"What is this?" he cried. "What has happened to Miss Cavanagh?"
+
+"Come and see," she said. "O that she should go out of the house first
+in this way!"
+
+Alarmed more by the woman's manner than her words, Dr. Sellick hurried
+forward and entered the open laboratory door almost without realizing
+that in another instant he would be in the presence of Emma. And when he
+did see her, and met the eyes he had not looked into since that night a
+year before when she listened to his vows with such a sweet and bashful
+timidity, he hardly felt the shock of the change observable in her, for
+the greater shock her sister's appearance inspired. For Hermione lay on
+that same old couch which had once held her father, ill to
+speechlessness, and though the Doctor did not know what had brought her
+to this condition, he began to suspect and doubt if he were in time to
+revive her.
+
+"What has she taken?" he demanded. "Something, or she would not be as
+low as this without more warning."
+
+Emma, quaking, put a little piece of paper in his hand.
+
+"I found this in her pocket," she whispered. "It was only a little while
+ago. It is quite empty," said she, "or you would have had two patients."
+
+He stared at her, hardly taking in her words. Then he leaped to the
+door.
+
+"Frank," he cried, tossing down a slip of paper on which he had hastily
+written a word, "go with this to the druggist at once! Run, for moments
+are precious!"
+
+They heard a shout in answer; then the noise of the front door opening
+and shutting, and the sound of rapidly departing steps.
+
+"Thank God!" the young physician murmured, as he came back into the
+laboratory, "that I studied chemistry with Mr. Cavanagh, or I might not
+know just what antidote was required here."
+
+"Look!" Emma whispered; "she moved, when you said the word _Frank_."
+
+The Doctor leaned forward and took Emma's hand.
+
+"If we can rouse her enough to make her speak, she will be saved. When
+did she take that powder?"
+
+"I fear she took it this morning, shortly after--after nine o'clock;
+but she did not begin to grow seriously ill till an hour ago, when she
+suddenly threw up her arms and shrieked."
+
+"And didn't you know; didn't you suspect----"
+
+"No, for she said nothing. She only looked haggard and clung to me;
+clung as if she could not bear to have me move an inch away from her
+side."
+
+"And how long has she been unconscious and in that clammy, cold sweat?"
+
+"A little while; just before we sent for you. I--I hated to disturb you
+at first, but life is everything, and----"
+
+He gave her one deep, reassuring look.
+
+"Emma," he softly murmured, "if we save your sister, four hearts shall
+be happy. See if you can make her stir. Tell her that Frank is here, and
+wants to see her."
+
+Emma, with a brightening countenance, leaned over and kissed Hermione's
+marble-like brow.
+
+"Hermione," she cried, "Hermione! Frank wants you; he is tired of
+waiting. Come, dear; shall I not tell him you will come?"
+
+A quiver at the word _Frank_, but that was all.
+
+"It is Frank, dear; Frank!" Emma persisted. "Rouse up long enough just
+to see him. He loves you, Hermione."
+
+Not even a quiver now. Dr. Sellick began to turn pale.
+
+"Hermione, will you leave us now, just as you are going to be happy?
+Listen, listen to Emma. You know I have always told you the truth. Frank
+is here, ready to love you. Wake, darling; wake, dearest----"
+
+There was no use. No marble could be more unresponsive. Dr. Sellick
+rushed in anguish to the door. But the step he heard there was that of
+Huckins, and it was Huckins' face he encountered at the head of the
+stairs.
+
+"Is she dead?" cried that worthy, bending forward to look into the room.
+"I was afraid, _very_ much afraid, you could not do any good, when I saw
+how cold she was, poor dear."
+
+The Doctor, not hearing him, shouted out: "The antidote! the antidote!
+Why does not Frank come!"
+
+At that instant Frank was heard below: "Am I in time?" he gasped. "Here
+it is; I ran all the way"; and he came rushing up the stairs just as
+Huckins slipped from the step where he was and fell against him.
+
+"Oh," whimpered that old hypocrite, "I beg your pardon; I am so
+agitated!" But his agitation seemed to spring mainly from the fact that
+the antidote Frank brought was in powder and not in a bottle, which
+might have been broken in their encounter.
+
+Dr. Sellick, who saw nothing but the packet Frank held, grasped the
+remedy and dashed back into the room. Frank followed and stood in
+anguished suspense within the open doorway. Huckins crouched and
+murmured to himself on the stair.
+
+"Can we get her to take it? Is there hope?" murmured Emma.
+
+No word came in reply; the Doctor was looking fixedly at his patient.
+
+"Frank," he said solemnly, "come and take her hand in yours. Nothing
+else will ever make her unlock her lips."
+
+Frank, reeling in his misery, entered and fell at her feet.
+
+"Hermione," he endeavored to say, but the word would not come. Breaking
+into sobs he took her hand and laid his forehead upon it. Would that
+anguish of the beloved one arouse her? Dr. Sellick and Emma drew near
+together in their anxiety and watched. Suddenly a murmur escaped from
+the former, and he bent rapidly forward. The close-locked lips were
+parting, parting so slowly, so imperceptibly, that only a physician's
+eye could see it. Waiting till they were opened enough to show the
+pearly teeth, he stooped and whispered in Frank's ear. Instantly the
+almost overwhelmed lover, roused, saw this evidence of existing life,
+and in his frenzied relief imprinted one wild kiss upon the hand he
+held. It seemed to move her, to reach her heart, to stay the soul just
+hovering on the confines of life, for the lips parted further, the lids
+of the eyes trembled, and before the reaction came, Dr. Sellick had
+succeeded in giving her a few grains of the impalpable powder he was
+holding.
+
+"It will either kill or restore her," said he. "In five minutes we
+shall know the result."
+
+And when at the end of those five minutes they heard a soft sigh, they
+never thought, in their sudden joy and relief, to look for the sneaking
+figure trembling on the staircase, who, at this first sign of reviving
+life in one he thought dead, slid from his station and went creeping
+down the stairs, with baffled looks that would have frightened even
+Doris had she seen them.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX.
+
+IN THE POPLAR WALK.
+
+
+Two days had passed. Hermione was sitting in the cheerful sitting-room
+with the choicest of flowers about her and the breeze from the open
+window fluttering gayly in her locks. She was weak yet, but there was
+promise of life in her slowly brightening eye, and from the language of
+the smile which now and then disturbed the lines of her proud lips,
+there was hope of happiness in the heart which but two short days before
+had turned from life in despair.
+
+Yet it was not a perfect hope, or the smiles would have been deeper and
+more frequent. She had held a long talk with Frank, but he had not
+touched upon a certain vital question, perhaps because he felt she had
+not yet the strength to argue it. He was her lover and anticipated
+marrying her, but he had not said whether he expected her to disobey her
+father and leave her home. She felt that he must expect this; she also
+felt that he had the right to do so; but when she thought of yielding to
+his wishes, the old horror returned to her, and a suffocating feeling of
+fear, as if it would never be allowed. The dead have such a hold upon
+us. As the pleasure of living and the ecstasy of love began to make
+themselves felt again in her weakened frame, she could not refrain from
+asking herself by what right she contemplated taking up the joys of
+life, who had not only forfeited them by her attempt at suicide, but who
+had been cursed by a father and doomed by his will to perpetual
+imprisonment. Had he not said, "Let not hatred, let not _love_, lead you
+to leave these doors"? How then presume to think of it or dream that she
+could be happy with such remembrances as hers ever springing up to
+blight her life? She wished, oh! how she wished, that Frank would not
+ask her to leave her home. Yet she knew this was weakness, and that
+soon, at the next interview, perhaps, she would have to dash his hopes
+by speaking of her fears. And so Hermione was not perfectly happy.
+
+Emma, on the contrary, was like a bird loosed from a cage. She sang,
+yes, sang as she flitted up and down the stairs, and once Hermione
+started and blushed with surprise as her voice in a merry peal of
+laughter came from the garden. Such a sound had not been heard in that
+house for a year; such a sound seemed an anomaly there. Yet how sweet it
+was, and how it seemed to lift the shadows.
+
+There was another person who started as this unusual note of merriment
+disturbed the silence of the garden. It was Huckins, who was slowly
+walking up and down beneath the poplars. He was waiting for Doris, and
+this sound went through him like an arrow.
+
+"Laughter," he muttered, shaking his trembling hands in menace towards
+her. "That is a sound I must crush. It speaks too much of hope, and hope
+means the loss to me of all for which I have schemed for years. Why
+didn't that poison work? Why did I let that doctor come? I might have
+locked the door against him and left them to hunt for the key. But I was
+afraid; that Etheridge is so ready to suspect me."
+
+He turned and walked away from the house. He dreaded to hear that
+silvery sound again.
+
+"If she had died, as I had every reason to suspect after such a dose,
+Emma would have followed her in a day. And then who could have kept me
+out of my property? Not Etheridge, for all his hatred and suspicion of
+me." He shook his hand again in menace and moved farther down the path.
+
+As his small black figure disappeared up the walk Doris appeared at the
+kitchen door. She also looked cheerful, yet there was a shade of anxiety
+in her expression as she glanced up the walk.
+
+"He says he is going away," she murmured. "The shock of Miss Hermione's
+illness was too much for him, poor man! and he does not seem to consider
+how lonesome I will be. If only he had asked me to go with him! But then
+I could not have left the young ladies; not while they stick to this old
+horror of a house. What is it, Miss Emma?"
+
+"A four-leaved clover! one, two, _three_ of them," cried her young
+mistress from the lawn at the side of the house. "We are in luck! Times
+are going to change for us all, I think."
+
+"The best luck we can have is to quit this house forever," answered
+Doris, with a boldness unusual on her lips.
+
+"Ah," returned Emma, with her spirits a little dashed, "I cannot say
+about that, but we will try and be happy in it."
+
+"Happy in it!" repeated Doris, but this time to herself. "I can never be
+happy in it, now I have had my dreams of pleasure abroad." And she left
+the kitchen door and began her slow walk towards the end of the garden.
+
+Arrived at the place where Huckins waited for her, she stopped.
+
+"Good afternoon," said she. "Pleasant strolling under these poplars."
+
+He grunted and shook his head slowly to and fro.
+
+"Nothing is very pleasant here," said he. "I have stood it as long as I
+can. My nieces are good girls, but I have failed to make them see
+reason, and I must leave it now to these two lovers of theirs to do what
+they can."
+
+"And do you think they will succeed? That the young ladies will be
+influenced by them to break up their old habits?"
+
+This was what Huckins did think, and what was driving him to extremity,
+but he veiled his real feelings very successfully under a doleful shake
+of the head.
+
+"I do not know," said he. "I fear not. The Cavanagh blood is very
+obstinate, very obstinate indeed."
+
+"Do you mean," cried Doris, "that they won't leave the house to be
+married? That they will go on living here in spite of these two young
+gentlemen who seem to be so fond of them?"
+
+"I do," said he, with every appearance of truth. "I don't think anything
+but fire will ever drive them out of this house."
+
+It was quietly said, almost mournfully, but it caused Doris to give a
+sudden start. Looking at him intently, she repeated "Fire?" and seemed
+to quake at the word, even while she rolled it like a sweet morsel under
+her tongue.
+
+He nodded, but did not further press the subject. He had caught her look
+from the corner of his eye, and did not think it worth while to change
+his attitude of innocence.
+
+"I wish," he insinuated, "there was another marriage which could take
+place."
+
+"Another marriage?" she simpered.
+
+"I have too much money for one to spend," said he. "I wish I knew of a
+good woman to share it."
+
+Doris, before whose eyes the most dazzling dreams of wealth and
+consequence at once flashed, drooped her stout figure and endeavored to
+look languishing.
+
+"If it were not for my duty to the young ladies," sighed she.
+
+"Yes, yes," said he, "you must never leave them."
+
+She turned, she twisted, she tortured her hands in her endeavor to keep
+down the evidences of her desire and her anxiety.
+
+"If--if this house should be blown down in a storm or--or a fire should
+consume it as you say, they would have to go elsewhere, have to marry
+these young men, have to be happy in spite of themselves."
+
+"But what cyclones ever come here?" he asked, with his mockery of a
+smile. "Or where could a fire spring from in a house guarded by a
+Doris?"
+
+She was trembling so she could not answer. "Come out here again at six
+o'clock," said she; "they will miss me if I stay too long now. Oh, sir,
+how I wish I could see those two poor loves happy again!"
+
+"How I wish you could!" said he, and there was nothing in his tone for
+her ears but benevolence.
+
+As Huckins crept from the garden-gate he ran against Frank, who was on
+his way to the station.
+
+"Oh, sir," he exclaimed, cringing, "I am sure I beg your pardon. Going
+up to town, eh?"
+
+"Yes, and I advise you to do the same," quoth the other, turning upon
+him sharply. "The Misses Cavanagh are not well enough at present to
+entertain visitors."
+
+"You are no doubt right," returned Huckins with his meekest and most
+treacherous aspect. "It is odd now, isn't it, but I was just going to
+say that it was time I left them, much as I love the poor dears. They
+seem so happy now, and their prospects are so bright, eh?"
+
+"I hope so; they have had trouble enough."
+
+"Um, um, they will go to Flatbush, I suppose, and I--poor old outcast
+that I am--may rub my hands in poverty."
+
+He looked so cringing, and yet so saturnine, that Frank was tempted to
+turn on his heel and leave him with his innuendoes unanswered. But his
+better spirit prevailing, he said, after a moment's pregnant silence:
+
+"Yes; the young ladies will go to Flatbush, and the extent of the
+poverty you endure will depend upon your good behavior. I do not think
+either of your nieces would wish to see you starve."
+
+"No, no, poor dears, they are very kind, and the least I can do is to
+leave them. Old age and misery are not fit companions for youth and
+hope, are they, Mr. Etheridge?"
+
+"I have already intimated what I thought about that."
+
+"So you have, so you have. You are such a lawyer, Mr. Etheridge, such an
+admirable lawyer!"
+
+Frank, disgusted, attempted to walk on, but Huckins followed close after
+him.
+
+"You do not like me," he said. "You think because I was violent once
+that I envy these sweet girls their rights. But you don't know me, Mr.
+Etheridge; you don't know my good heart. Since I have seen them I have
+felt very willing to give up my claims, they are such nice girls, and
+will be so kind to their poor old uncle."
+
+Frank gave him a look as much as to say he would see about that, but he
+said nothing beyond a short "What train do you take?"
+
+As Huckins had not thought seriously of taking any, he faltered for a
+moment and then blurted out:
+
+"I shall get off at eight. I must say good-by to the young ladies, you
+know."
+
+Frank, who did not recognize this _must_, looked at his watch and said:
+
+"You have just a half hour to get the train with me; you had better take
+it."
+
+Huckins, a little startled, looked doubtfully at the lawyer and
+hesitated. He did not wish to arouse his antagonism or to add to his
+suspicion; indeed it was necessary to allay both. He therefore, after a
+moment of silent contemplation of the severe and inscrutable face before
+him, broke into a short wheedling laugh, and saying, "I had no idea my
+company was so agreeable," promised to make what haste he could and
+catch the six o'clock train if possible.
+
+But of course it was not possible. He had his second interview with
+Doris to hold, and after that was over there were the young ladies to
+see and impress with the disinterested state of his feelings. So that it
+was eight o'clock before he was ready to leave the town. But he did
+leave it at that hour, though it must have been with some intention of
+returning, or why did he carry away with him the key of the side-door of
+the old Cavanagh mansion?
+
+
+
+
+XXX.
+
+THE FINAL TERROR.
+
+
+A week went by and Frank returned to Marston full of hope and definite
+intention. He had notified the Surrogate of the discovery of the real
+heirs to the Wakeham estate, and he had engaged workmen to put in order
+the old house in Flatbush against the arrival of the youthful claimants.
+All that there now remained to do was to induce the young ladies to
+leave the accursed walls within which they had so long immured
+themselves.
+
+Edgar was awaiting him at the station, and together they walked up the
+street.
+
+"Is it all right?" asked Frank. "Have you seen them daily?"
+
+"Every day but to-day. You would hardly know Emma."
+
+"And--and Hermione?"
+
+"She shows her feelings less, but she is evidently happier than she has
+been for a year."
+
+"And her health?"
+
+"Is completely re-established."
+
+"Have you kept your word? Have you talked of everything but what we
+propose to do?"
+
+"I never break my word."
+
+"And they? Have they said anything about leaving the house, or of going
+to Flatbush, or--or----"
+
+"No; they have preserved as close a silence as ourselves. I imagine they
+do not think it proper to speak till we have spoken first."
+
+"It may be; but I should have been pleased if you could have told me
+that Hermione had been seen walking outside the gate."
+
+"You would?"
+
+"Yes. I dread the struggle which I now see before me. It is the first
+step which costs, and I was in hopes she would have taken this in my
+absence."
+
+"Yes, it would have prevented argument. But perhaps you will not have to
+argue. She may be merely waiting for the support of your arm."
+
+"Whatever she is waiting for, she takes her first step down the street
+to-night. What a new world it will open before her!" And Frank
+unconsciously quickened his pace.
+
+Edgar followed with a less impatient step but with fully as much
+determination. Pride was mingled with his love, and pride demanded that
+his future wife should not be held in any bonds forged by the obstinacy
+or the superstitious fears of a wayward sister.
+
+They expected to see the girls at the windows, but they found the
+shutters closed and the curtains drawn. Indeed, the whole house had a
+funereal look which staggered Frank and made even Edgar stare in
+astonishment. "It was not like this yesterday," he declared. "Do they
+not expect you?"
+
+"Yes, if my telegram was delivered."
+
+"Let us see at once what is the matter."
+
+It was Doris who came to the door. When her eyes fell upon the two young
+men, especially upon Frank, her whole countenance changed.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Etheridge, is it you?" she cried. "I thought--I understood----"
+She did not say what, but her relieved manner made quite an impression
+on Frank, although it was, of course, impossible for him to suspect what
+a dangerous deed she had been contemplating at that very moment.
+
+"Are the young ladies well?" he asked, in his haste to be relieved from
+his anxiety.
+
+"Oh, yes, quite well," she admitted, somewhat mysteriously. "They are in
+there," she added, pointing to the parlor on the left.
+
+Frank and Edgar looked at each other. They had always before this been
+received in the cheerful sitting-room.
+
+"If something is not soon done to make Miss Hermione leave the house,"
+Doris whispered passionately to Frank as she passed him, "there will be
+worse trouble here than there has ever been before."
+
+"What do you mean?" he demanded, gliding swiftly after her and catching
+her by the arm just as she reached the back hall.
+
+"Go in and see," said she, "and when you come out tell me what success
+you have had. For if you fail, then----"
+
+"Then what----"
+
+"Providence must interpose to help you."
+
+She was looking straight at him, but that glance told him nothing. He
+thought her words strange and her conduct strange, but everything was
+strange in this house, and not having the key to her thoughts, the word
+_Providence_ did not greatly startle him.
+
+"I will see what I can do," said he, and returning to Edgar, who had
+remained standing by the parlor-door, he preceded him into that gloomy
+apartment.
+
+The girls were both there, seated, as Frank perceived with a certain
+sinking of the heart, in the farthest and dimmest corner of this most
+forbidding place. Emma was looking towards them, but Hermione sat with
+downcast eyes and an air of discouragement about her Frank found it hard
+to behold unmoved.
+
+"Hermione," said he, advancing into the middle of the room, "have you no
+welcome for me?"
+
+Trembling with sudden feeling, she rose slowly to her feet; and her eyes
+lifted themselves painfully to his.
+
+"Forgive me," she entreated, "I have had such a shock."
+
+"Shock?"
+
+"Yes. Look at my head! look at my hair!"
+
+She bent forward; he hastened to her side and glanced at the rich locks
+towards which she pointed. As he did so, he recoiled in sudden awe and
+confusion. "What does it mean?" he asked. There were gray spots in those
+dusky tresses, spots which had never been there before.
+
+"The fingers of a ghost have touched me," she whispered. "Wherever they
+fell, a mark has been left, and those marks sear my brain."
+
+And then Frank noticed, with inward horror, that the spots were regular
+and ran in a distinct circle about her head.
+
+"Hermione," he cried, "has your imagination carried you so far? Ghost?
+Do you believe in ghosts?"
+
+"I believe in anything _now_," she murmured.
+
+Frightened by her shudders and dazed by words he found it impossible to
+treat lightly with those mysterious marks before him, Frank turned for
+relief to Emma, who had risen also and stood a few steps behind them,
+with her face bent downward though the Doctor pressed close at her side.
+
+"Do you understand her?" said Frank.
+
+With an effort Emma moved forward. "It has frightened _me_," she
+whispered.
+
+"What has? Let us hear all about it," demanded the Doctor, speaking for
+the first time.
+
+Hermione gave him a wistful glance. "We are wretched girls," said she.
+"If you expected to relieve us from the curse, it is impossible; my
+father will not have it so."
+
+"Your father!" quoth both of the young men, appalled not at the
+superstition thus evinced, but at the effect they saw it was likely to
+have upon her mind.
+
+"Did you think you saw _him_?" added Frank. "When? Where?"
+
+"In the laboratory--last night. I did not see him but I felt him; felt
+him strike my head with his fingers and drag me back. It was worse than
+death! I shall never get over it."
+
+"Tell me the particulars; explain the whole matter to me. Imagination
+plays us ghastly tricks sometimes. Were you alone? Was it late?"
+
+"Why didn't I come here this morning?" cried Edgar.
+
+"It was long after midnight. I had received your letter and could not
+sleep, so I went into the laboratory, as we often do, to walk. It was
+the first time I had been there since I was ill, and it made me tremble
+to cross its hated threshold, but I had a question to decide, and I
+thought I ought to decide it there. But I trembled, as I say, and my
+hand shook so as I opened the door that I was more disturbed than
+astonished when my light went suddenly out, leaving me in total
+darkness. As I was by this time inside the laboratory I did not turn
+back to relight my candle, for the breeze I presently felt blowing
+through the room convinced me that this would be idle, and that till the
+window was shut, which let in such a stream of air, any attempt to bring
+a light into the room would be attended by the same results. I therefore
+moved rapidly across the room to the window, and was about to close it
+when I was suddenly arrested, and my arms were paralyzed by the feeling
+of a presence in the room behind my back. It was so vivid, so clear to
+my thoughts, that I seemed to see it, though I did not turn from the
+window. It was that of an old man--my father's,--and the menace with
+which the arms were lifted froze the blood in my veins.
+
+"I had merited it; I had been near to breaking his command. I had
+meditated, if I had not decided, upon a sudden breaking away from the
+bondage he had imposed upon me; I had been on the point of daring his
+curse, and now it was to fall upon me. I felt the justice of his
+presence and fell, as if stricken, on my knees.
+
+"The silence that followed may have been short, and it may have been
+long. I was almost unconscious from fright, remorse, and apprehension.
+But when I did rouse and did summon courage to turn and crawl from the
+room, I was conscious of the thing following me, and would have
+screamed, but that I had no voice. Suddenly I gave a rush; but the
+moment I started forward I felt those fingers fall upon my head and draw
+me back, and when I did escape it was with a force that carried me
+beyond the door and then laid me senseless on the floor; for I am no
+longer strong, Mr. Etheridge, and the hatred of the dead is worse than
+that of the living."
+
+"You had a dream, a fearful dream, and these marks prove its
+vividness," declared Edgar. "You must not let your life be ruined by any
+such fantasies."
+
+"Oh, that it had been a dream," moaned Hermione, "but it was more than
+that, as we can prove."
+
+"Prove?"
+
+"Come to the laboratory," cried Emma, suddenly. "There is something we
+want to show you there; something which I saw early this morning when I
+went in to close the window Hermione did not shut."
+
+The young men, startled, did not wait for a second bidding; they
+followed the two girls immediately up-stairs.
+
+"No one has been up these stairs but Doris and ourselves since you went
+down them a week ago," declared Hermione, as they entered the
+laboratory. "Now look at the lid of the mahogany desk--my father's
+desk."
+
+They all went over to it, and Emma, pointing, seemed to ask what they
+thought of it. They did not know what to think, for there on its even
+surface they beheld words written with the point of a finger in the
+thick dust which covered it; and the words were legible and ran thus:
+
+"In your anger you swore to remain within these walls; in your remorse
+see that you keep that oath. Not for love, not for hatred, dare to cross
+the threshold, or I will denounce you in the grave where I shall be
+gone, and my curse shall be upon you."
+
+"My father's words to me in the dreadful hour of his death," whispered
+Hermione. "You may remember them, Mr. Etheridge; they were in the letter
+I wrote you."
+
+Frank did remember them quite well, and for a moment he, like Edgar,
+stood a little dazed and shaken by a mystery he could not immediately
+fathom. But only for a moment. He was too vigorous, and his
+determination was too great, for him to be daunted long by even an
+appearance of the supernatural. So leaping forward, with a bright laugh,
+he drew his hand across the menacing words, and, effacing them at once,
+cried with a confident look at Hermione:
+
+"So will I erase them from your heart if you only will let me,
+Hermione."
+
+But she pointed with an awful look at her hair.
+
+"Can you take these spots out also? Till you can, do not expect me to
+follow the beck of any hand which would lead me to defy my father's
+curse by leaving this house."
+
+At this declaration both men turned pale, and unconsciously moved
+towards each other with a single thought. Had they looked at the door,
+they would have seen the inquisitive face of Doris disappear towards the
+staircase, with that air of determination which only ends in action. But
+they only saw each other and the purpose which was slowly developing in
+each of their minds.
+
+"Come, Hermione," urged Frank, "this is no place for you. If you are
+going to stay in this house, I am going to stay with you; but this room
+is prohibited; you shall never enter it again."
+
+He did not know how truly he spoke.
+
+"Come," said Edgar, in his turn, to Emma, "we have had all the horrors
+we want; now let us go down-stairs and have a little cheerful talk in
+the sitting-room."
+
+And Emma yielded; but Hermione hung back.
+
+"I dread to go down," said she; "this seems the only place in which I
+can say farewell."
+
+But Frank was holding out his hand, and she gradually gave in to its
+seduction and followed him down-stairs into the sitting-room, which was
+fast growing dusky.
+
+"Now," said he, without heeding Emma and the Doctor, who had retreated
+to one of the farther windows, "if you wish to say farewell, I will
+listen to you; but before you speak, hear what I have to say. In a
+certain box which came with me this day from New York, and which is now
+at Mr. Lothrop's, there lies a gown of snowy satin made with enough lace
+to hide any deficiencies it may have in size or fit. With this gown is a
+veil snowy as itself, and on the veil there lies a wreath of orange
+blossoms, while under the whole are piled garments after garments,
+chosen with loving care by the only sister I have in the world, for the
+one woman in that world I wish to make my wife. If you love me,
+Hermione, if you think my devotion a true one, fly from this nest of
+hideous memories and superstitious fears, and in that place where you
+are already expected, put on these garments I have brought you, and with
+them a crown of love, joy, and hope, which will mean a farewell, not to
+me, but to the old life forever."
+
+But Hermione, swaying aside from him, cried: "I cannot, I cannot; the
+rafters would fall if I tried to pass the door."
+
+"Then," said Frank, growing in height and glowing with purpose, "they
+shall fall first on me." And seizing her in his arms, he raised her to
+his breast and fled with her out of the room and out of the house, her
+wild shriek of mingled terror and love trailing faintly after them till
+he stopped on the farther side of the gate, which softly closed behind
+them.
+
+Emma, who was taken as much by surprise as her sister had been, looked
+at the empty place where Hermione had so lately stood, and cowered low,
+as if the terrible loneliness of the house, now _she_ was gone, crushed
+upon her like a weight. Then she seized Edgar by the hand and ran out
+also; and Edgar pulled the great door to behind them, and the Cavanagh
+mansion, for the first time in a year, was a shell without inmates, a
+body without soul.
+
+They found Hermione standing in the dark shadows cast here in the street
+by the overhanging trees. Frank's arm was about her and she looked both
+dazed and pleased.
+
+When she saw Emma she started.
+
+"Oh, it releases you too," she cried; "that is happiness. I did not
+like to see you suffer for my sins." Then she drooped a little, then she
+looked up, and a burden seemed to roll away from her heart. "The rafters
+did not fall," she murmured, "and you, Frank, will keep all spectres
+away from me, won't you? He can never reach me when I am by your side."
+
+"Never, never," was the glad reply. And Frank began to draw her gently
+up the street. "It is but a step," said he, "to Mr. Lothrop's; no one
+will ever notice that you are without a hat."
+
+"But----"
+
+"You are expected," he whispered. "You are never to go back into your
+old home again."
+
+Again he did not know how truly he spoke.
+
+"Emma, Emma," appealed Hermione, "shall I do this thing, without any
+preparation, any thought, anything but my love and gratitude to make it
+a true bridal?"
+
+"Ah, Hermione, in making yourself happy, you make me so; therefore I am
+but a poor adviser."
+
+"What, will you be married too, to-night, at the minister's house with
+me?"
+
+"No, dear, but soon, very soon, as soon as you can give me a home to be
+married in."
+
+"Then let us make her happy," cried Hermione. "It is the only
+reparation I can offer for all I have made her suffer."
+
+
+
+
+XXXI.
+
+AN EVENTFUL QUARTER OF AN HOUR.
+
+
+When Edgar closed the front door of the Cavanagh mansion behind himself
+and Emma, the noise he made was slight, and yet it was heard by ears
+that were listening for it in the remote recesses of the kitchen.
+
+"The gentlemen are gone," decided Doris, without any hesitation. "They
+could not move Miss Hermione from her resolves, and I did not think they
+could. Nothing can move her but fire, and fire there shall be, and that
+to-night."
+
+Stealing towards the front of the house, she listened. All was quiet.
+She instantly concluded that the young ladies were in the parlor, and
+glided back to a certain closet under the stairs, into which she peered
+with a satisfied air. "Plenty of stuff there," she commented, and
+shivered slightly as she thought of putting a candle to the combustible
+pile before her. Shutting the door, she crept to another spot where lay
+a huge pile of shavings, and again she nodded with satisfaction at the
+sight. Finally, she went into the shed, and when she came back she
+walked like one who sees the way clear to her purposes.
+
+"I promised Mr. Huckins I would not start the blaze till after
+midnight," said she almost audibly, as she passed again towards the
+front. "He was so afraid if the fire got started early that the
+neighbors would put it out before any harm was done. But I haven't the
+nerve to do such a thing with the young ladies up-stairs. They might not
+get down safely, or I might not have the power to wake them. No, I will
+fire it now, while they are in the parlor, and trust to its going like
+tinder, as it will. Won't the young gentlemen thank me, and won't the
+young ladies do the same, when they get over the shock of being suddenly
+thrown upon the world."
+
+Chuckling softly to herself, she looked up-stairs and finally ran
+quietly up. With a woman's thoughtfulness she remembered certain
+articles which she felt were precious to the young ladies. To gather
+these together would be the work of a moment, and it would ease her
+conscience. Going first to Hermione's room, she threw such objects as
+she considered valuable into a sheet, and tied them up. Then she tossed
+the bundle thus made out of one of the side windows. Running to Emma's
+room, she repeated her operations; and letting her own things go,
+hastened down-stairs and went again into the kitchen. When she reissued
+it was with a lighted candle in her hand.
+
+Meantime from the poplar walk two eyes were gazing with restless
+eagerness upon the house. They belonged to Huckins, who, unknown to
+Etheridge, unknown to Doris even, had returned to Marston for the
+purpose of watching the development of his deadly game. He had stolen
+into the garden and was surveying the place, not so much from any
+expectation of fire at this hour, as because his whole interest was
+centred in the house and he could not keep his eyes from it.
+
+But suddenly, as he looks, he detects something amiss, and starting
+forward, with many muttered exclamations, he draws nearer and nearer to
+the house, which he presently enters by means of the key he draws from
+his pocket. As he does so, a faint smell of smoke comes to his nostrils,
+causing him to mutter: "She is three hours too soon; what does she mean
+by it?"
+
+The door by which he had entered was at the end of a side hall. He
+found the house dark, but he was so accustomed to it by this time, that
+he felt no hesitancy as to his steps. He went at first to the
+sitting-room and looked in; there was no one there. Then he proceeded to
+the parlor, which was also empty. "Good," thought he, "they are
+up-stairs"; and he slid with his quiet step to the staircase, up which
+he went like the ghost or spectre which he had perhaps simulated the
+night before. There was a door at the top of the first landing, and he
+had some thoughts of simply locking this, and escaping. But, he said to
+himself, it would be much more satisfactory to first make sure that the
+two girls were really above, before he locked them in; so he crept up
+farther, and finally came to Hermione's room. The door was shut, but
+from the light which shone through the keyhole (a light which Doris had
+left there in her haste and trepidation), he judged Hermione to be
+within, so he softly turned the key that was in the lock, and glided
+away to Emma's apartment. This was also closed, but there was a light
+there, also from the same cause, so there being no key visible he drew a
+heavy piece of furniture across the doorway, and fled back to the
+stairs. As he reached them, a blinding gust of smoke swept up through
+the crevices beneath his feet, but he thought he saw his way clearly,
+and rushed for the landing. But just as he reached it, the door--the
+door he had intended to close behind him--shut sharply in his face, and
+he found himself imprisoned. With a shriek, he dashed against it; but it
+was locked; and just as he staggered upright again from his violent
+efforts to batter it down, a red-hot flame shot up through a gap in the
+staircase and played about his feet. He yelled, and dashed up the
+stairs. If he were to suffer for his own crime, he would at least have
+companions in his agony. Calling upon Emma and Hermione, he rushed to
+the piece of furniture with which he had barred the former's apartment,
+and frantically drew it aside. The door remained shut; there was no
+agonized one within to force it open the moment the pressure against it
+was relieved. Stupefied, he staggered away and ran up the twisted
+staircase to Hermione's room. Perhaps they were here, perhaps they were
+both here. But all was silent within, and when he had entered and
+searched the space before him, even beneath and behind the curtains of
+the bed for its expected occupant, and found no one there, he uttered
+such a cry as that house had never listened to, not even when it echoed
+to its master's final yell of rage and despair.
+
+Doris meanwhile was suffering her own punishment below. When she had
+lighted the three several piles she had prepared, she fled into the
+front of the house to spread the alarm and insure the safety of her
+young mistresses. Passing the staircase she had one quick thought of the
+likelihood there might be of Hermione or Emma dashing up those stairs in
+an endeavor to save some of their effects, so she quietly locked the
+door above in order to prevent them. But when she had done this she
+heard a shriek, and, startled, she was about to unlock it again when a
+vivid flame shot up between her and the door making any such attempt
+impossible. Aghast with terror, fearing that by some error of
+calculation she had shut her young ladies up-stairs after all, she went
+shrieking their names through the lower rooms and halls, now filling
+with smoke and lurid with shooting jets of flame. As no response came
+and she could find no one in any of the rooms, her terror grew to frenzy
+and she would have dashed up-stairs at the risk of her life. But it was
+too late; the stairs had already fallen, and the place was one volcano
+of seething flame.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII.
+
+THE SPECTRE OF THE LABORATORY.
+
+
+Had Hermione been allowed time to think, she might have drawn back from
+such a sudden marriage. But Frank, who recognized this possibility,
+urged her with gentle speed down the street, and never ceased his
+persuasions till they stood at the minister's door. Mrs. Lothrop, who
+had a heart for romance, opened it, and seeing the blushing face and
+somewhat dishevelled appearance of Hermione, she cast one comprehending
+look at Frank, and drew them in joyfully.
+
+"You are to be married, are you not?" she asked, welcoming the whole
+four with the gayest of bows. "I congratulate you, dear, and will take
+you right away to my best room, where you will find your box and
+everything else you may need. I am so glad you decided to come here
+instead of having us go to you. It is so pleasant and so friendly and
+the Doctor does so dread to go out evenings now."
+
+Small chatter is ofttimes our salvation. Under this little lady's fire
+of bright talk Hermione lost the tragic feelings of months and seemed to
+awake to the genialities of life. Turning her grand head towards the
+smiling little woman she let her own happiness shine from the corners of
+her mouth, and then following the other's lead, allowed herself to be
+taken to a cosy chintz-furnished room whose home-like aspect struck warm
+upon her heart and completed the work of her rejuvenation.
+
+Emma, who was close behind her, laughed merrily.
+
+"Such a chrysalis of a bride," cried she. "Where are the wings with
+which to turn her into a butterfly?"
+
+Mrs. Lothrop showed them a great box, and then left them. Emma, lifting
+the lid, glanced shyly at Hermione, who blushed scarlet. Such a lovely
+array of satin, lace, and flowers! To these girls, who had denied
+themselves everything and been denied everything, it was a glimpse of
+Paradise. As one beautiful garment after another was taken out,
+Hermione's head drooped lower in her delight and the love it inspired,
+till at last the tears came and she wept for a few minutes
+unconstrainedly. When this mood had passed, she gave herself up to
+Emma's eager fingers, and was dressed in her bridal garments.
+
+The clock was striking ten when Frank's impatience was rewarded by the
+first glimpse of his bride. She came into the room with Emma and Mrs.
+Lothrop, and her beauty, heightened by her feelings to the utmost, was
+such as to fill him with triumph and delight.
+
+To Edgar it was a revelation, for always before, he had seen the scar
+before he did her; but now he was compelled to see her first, for the
+scar was hidden under fold upon fold of lace.
+
+"No wonder Frank is daft over her," thought he, "if she always looks
+like this to him."
+
+As for Frank, he bowed with all his soul to the radiant vision, and
+then, leading her up to Mr. Lothrop, awaited the sacred words which were
+to make them one. As they were being uttered, strange noises broke out
+in the street, and the cry of "Fire! fire!" rang out; but if the bride
+and bridegroom heard the ominous word they did not betray the fact, and
+the ceremony proceeded. It was soon over, and Frank turned to kiss his
+wife; but just as Emma advanced with her congratulations, the front door
+burst open and a neighbor's voice was heard to cry in great excitement:
+
+"The Cavanagh house is burning, and we are all afraid that the girls
+have perished in the flames."
+
+It was Emma who gave the one shriek that responded to these words.
+Hermione seemed like one frozen. Edgar, dashing to the door, looked out,
+and came slowly back.
+
+"Yes, it is burning," said he. "Emma will have to go with you to New
+York."
+
+"It is a judgment," moaned Hermione, clinging to Frank, who perhaps felt
+a touch of superstitious awe himself. "It is a judgment upon me for
+forgetting; for being happy; for accepting a deliverance I should not
+have desired."
+
+But at these words Frank regained his composure.
+
+"No," corrected he, "it is your deliverance made complete. Without it
+you might have had compunctions and ideas of returning to a place to
+which you felt yourself condemned. Now you never can. It is a merciful
+Providence."
+
+"Let us go and see the old house burn," she whispered. "If it is a
+funeral pyre of the past, let us watch the dying embers. Perhaps my
+fears will vanish with them."
+
+He did not refuse her; so Emma relieved her of her veil and threw about
+her a long cloak, and together they stepped into the street. The glare
+that struck their faces made them shrink, but they soon overcame the
+first shock and hastened on.
+
+The town was in a tumult, but they saw nothing save the flaming skeleton
+of their home, with the gaunt outlines of the poplars shining vividly in
+the scarlet glow.
+
+As they drew near to it the front of the house fell in, and Hermione,
+with a shriek, pointed to the corner where the laboratory had been.
+
+"My father! my father! See! see! he is there! He is denouncing me! Look
+at his lifted arms! It _is_ a judgment, it is----"
+
+Her words trailed off in choking horror. They all looked, and they all
+saw the figure of an old man writhing against a background of flame. Was
+it a spectre? Was it the restless ghost of the old professor showing
+itself for the last time in the place of his greatest sin and suffering?
+Even Edgar was silent, and Frank refused to say, while the girls,
+sinking upon their knees with inarticulate moans and prayers, seemed to
+beg for mercy and cry against this retribution, when suddenly Hermione
+felt herself clasped in two vigorous arms, and a voice exclaimed in the
+husky accents of great joy:
+
+"You are here! You are here! You are not burned! O my dear young
+mistresses, my dear, dear young mistresses!"
+
+Hermione, pushing the weeping Doris back, pointed again towards the
+toppling structure, and cried:
+
+"Do you see who is there? My father, Doris, my father! See how he
+beckons and waves, see----"
+
+Doris, startled, gave a cry in her turn:
+
+"It is Mr. Huckins! O save----"
+
+But the words were lost in the sudden crash of falling walls. The scene
+of woe was gone, and the dayspring of hope had risen for the two girls.
+
+
+
+
+_A Selection from the Catalogue of_
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
+
+Complete Catalogue sent on application
+
+
+Works by Anna Katharine Green
+
+
+THE LEAVENWORTH CASE. A Lawyer's Story.
+
+    New Illustrated Edition. Cr. 8vo.                           $1.50
+
+    "She has worked up a _cause celebre_ with a fertility of device and
+    ingenuity of treatment hardly second to Wilkie Collins or Edgar
+    Allan Poe."--_Christian Union_.
+
+
+BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "... She has never succeeded better in baffling the
+    reader."--_Boston Christian Register_.
+
+
+THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES. A Story of New York Life.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "'The Sword of Damocles' is a book of great power, which far
+    surpasses either of its predecessors from her pen, and places
+    her high among American writers. The plot is complicated and is
+    managed adroitly.... In the delineation of characters she has
+    shown both delicacy and vigor."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+
+X. Y. Z. and 7 TO 12: DETECTIVE STORIES.
+
+    16^o,                                                       $1 00
+
+    "Well written and extremely exciting and captivating.... She is
+    a perfect genius in the construction of a plot."--_N. Y.
+    Commercial Advertiser_.
+
+
+HAND AND RING.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "It is a tribute to the author's genius that she never tires and
+    never loses her readers.... It moves on clean and healthy.... It
+    is worked out powerfully and skilfully."--N. Y. Independent.
+
+
+A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "A most ingenious and absorbingly interesting story. The readers
+    are held spell-bound until the last page."--_Cincinnati
+    Commercial_.
+
+
+THE MILL MYSTERY.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+
+THE HOUSE OF THE WHISPERING PINES.
+
+    Cr. 8vo. Colored Frontispiece. Cloth                        $1.50
+
+    "As good as 'The Leavenworth Case.'"--_N. Y. Globe_.
+
+
+THE OLD STONE HOUSE, AND OTHER STORIES.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                              75 cents
+
+    "It is a bundle of quite cleverly constructed pieces of fiction,
+    with which an idle hour may be pleasantly passed."--_N. Y.
+    Independent._
+
+
+CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY. With frontispiece.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "'Cynthia Wakeham's Money' is a story notable even among the
+    many vigorous works of Anna Katharine Green."--_New York Sun._
+
+
+MARKED "PERSONAL."
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "The ingenious plot is built up with all the skill of the writer
+    of 'The Leavenworth Case' to the very last chapter, which
+    contains the surprising solutions of several mysteries."
+
+
+MISS HURD: AN ENIGMA.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "A strong and interesting novel in an entirely new field of
+    romance."
+
+
+THE DOCTOR, HIS WIFE, AND THE CLOCK.
+
+    32^o, limp cloth                                         50 cents
+
+    "The story is entertainingly told...."--_Cincinnati Tribune_.
+
+
+DR. IZARD.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "Those who have read her other books will not need to be urged
+    to read this; they will be eager to do so, and we assure them a
+    very interesting story."--_Boston Times_.
+
+
+THAT AFFAIR NEXT DOOR.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+    "Startling in its ingenuity and its wonderful plot."--_Buffalo
+    Enquirer_.
+
+
+LOST MAN'S LANE.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+
+AGATHA WEBB.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1.25
+
+
+ONE OF MY SONS.
+
+    16^o, cloth, illustrated                                    $1.50
+
+
+THE DEFENCE OF THE BRIDE, AND OTHER POEMS.
+
+    16^o, cloth                                                 $1 00
+
+
+RISIFI'S DAUGHTER.
+
+    A Drama. 16^o, cloth                                        $1 00
+
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, New York and London
+
+
+
+
+Who?
+
+By Elizabeth Kent
+
+Author of "The House Opposite"
+
+_Cr. 8vo. Frontispiece in Color by John Cassel $1.25 net. By mail,
+$1.40_
+
+
+A more thrilling detective story than "Who?" has seldom appeared. Not
+only does it deal with the story of a crime such as the ablest detective
+would find it difficult to solve, but there is an added mystery
+concerning the identity of one of the principal suspects, regarding
+which the reader's opinion will change a dozen times before arriving at
+the truth. Every page teems with incidents, forming a succession of
+dramatic scenes that will keep the reader's interest at white heat
+throughout.
+
+    G. P. Putnam's Sons
+    New York      London
+
+
+
+
+The Adventures of Miss Gregory
+
+By Perceval Gibbon
+
+_12^o. With 8 Illustrations. $1.35 net By mail, $1.50_
+
+
+The rousing volume of dare-devil enterprise that Perceval Gibbon has
+written is a book full of freshness and surprise. Miss Gregory knocks
+about the world, and wherever she goes she is in the thick of things. At
+one time it is a Nihilist plot which fascinates her; at another time, a
+plague-stricken community that calls her. She is in Africa when the
+slaver is secretly plying his trade, and again, in wicked Beira, at the
+opportune moment she interposes her calm, forceful personality between
+an aggressive ruffian and his friendless victim. Wherever she goes she
+attracts adventure to her. The book which recounts her extraordinary
+experiences is full of graphic pictures of men and women in widely
+separated parts of the globe, and the characterization of these is as
+forceful and impressive as the narrative in which they play their parts
+is swift in movement and enthralling in theme.
+
+    G. P. Putnam's Sons
+    New York      London
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+Punctuation has been standardised. Spelling and hyphenation have been
+retained as in the original publication except as follows:
+
+    Page 19
+    before her head could and its _changed to_
+    before her head could add its
+
+    Page 87
+    advisable to have an an inventory _changed to_
+    advisable to have an inventory
+
+    Page 120
+    heeded neither his works nor _changed to_
+    heeded neither his words nor
+
+    Page 135
+    so may their hearts be. Wont _changed to_
+    so may their hearts be. Won't
+
+    Page 144
+    Hermoine, and then I could _changed to_
+    Hermione, and then I could
+
+    Page 209
+    "since Hariet Smith is _changed to_
+    "since Harriet Smith is
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Cynthia Wakeham's Money, by Anna Katharine Green
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CYNTHIA WAKEHAM'S MONEY ***
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #36758 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36758)
author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 20:06:29 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 20:06:29 -0700
commit	3b306536ede8707a171235e8c583e69558d6e6b9 (patch)
tree	dee3808b3e24b2f654f0ed028f9cd7fdbad70d2d